Akron Regional Air Quality Management District

 

Ambient Air Quality

Source: Cleveland.com

Within the Clean Air Act it is stated that the EPA must designate National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for outdoor air pollutants that may be detrimental to human health and/or the environment. These air pollutants can originate at multiple sources such as automobiles, power plants, combustion of fossil fuels, and manufacturing. To a lesser extent, air quality is threatened by emissions from filling up your car, dry cleaning, and painting.

 It is one of ARAQMD’s duties to monitor outdoor air quality (ambient air quality) for Medina, Portage, and Summit counties and to ensure that the designated thresholds for those air pollutants covered within the NAAQS are met. The air pollutants monitored by our 7 air quality monitors throughout the given jurisdiction, shown in figure 1, are ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide. Originally it was also necessary to monitor lead, nitrogen dioxide, and PM₁₀, but levels of these have been well below the national standards so they are not presently being monitored. However, new NOx standards will have NOx monitoring return to the region in 2013.  All of these variables are also referred to as criteria pollutants.