Table 1 below lists active aambient air pollution monitoring sites in Louisville/Jefferson County.  All of the sites listed here are operated by the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District. There are 7 active sites.  The map of air monitoring sites shows the locations.   It does not list toxics monitoring sites.  Table 2 shows former monitoring sites that were discontinued since 1995.

A monitor represents a measurement system for a particular pollutant (or other parameter) at a particular site.  In some cases, there are multiple monitors of the same pollutant at the same site for quality assurance or speciation purposes.  Table 3 lists active and recently discontinued monitors.  As of early 2009, there will be 21 active air pollution monitors and several meteorological monitors.  The District monitors for carbon monoxide at two sites, sulfur dioxide at two sites, oxides of nitrogen at one site, PM_2.5 at four sites, PM₁₀ at two sites, and meteorological parameters at one site continuously every third day / 24-hour avg a day, every day of the year, except for downtime due to quality-assurance checks, repair and preventive maintenance. APCD monitors ozone at three sites continuously every third day / 24-hour avg a day from March 1 through October 31. (This is the "ozone season" for Kentucky as specified by the US EPA.)  Concentrations of each of these continuous parameters are stored and reported to the EPA as hourly averages. APCD also measures PM_2.5 over a 24-hour period at four sites: every day at two sites, every third day at one site and every sixth day at another, following EPA requirements.

Table 1: Active Monitoring Sites

Table 2: Former Monitoring Sites

Table 3: Active Monitors

Key:

Pollutants: CO: carbon monoxide, NO_x: nitrogen oxides, O₃: ozone, SO₂: sulfur dioxide, Pb: lead (total suspended particulates), PM₁₀: inhalable particulates (< 10 microns), PM_2.5: fine particulates (< 2.5 microns), wind: wind speed and direction.  Note: The PM_2.5 sites also monitor ambient temperature and relative humidity.

US EPA monitor types: NCore: National Core Air Monitoring Station, NAMS: National Air Monitoring Station, SLAMS: State or Local Air Monitoring Station, SPMS: Special Purpose Monitoring Station, EEMS: Emergency Episode Monitoring Station, AQI: Air Quality Index station (see note 1).

Sampling terms: FRM: federal reference method; the FRM for PM_2.5 is a filter-based method using daily samplers. Continuous: samples are collected continuously and averaged hourly.  Speciation: quantification of the chemical components of a substance, in this case particulate matter.

Notes:

1. APCD uses this monitor as a AQI monitor.
2. Duplicate (co-located) samplers for measuring precision.
3. Wind instruments were moved from the Watson Lane site to the Firearms Training site in fall 2000. They were moved to the Southwick site in April 2004.
4. The PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 monitors at the Southwick site were moved to the nearby Firearms Training site for the calendar year 2001 because of remodeling of the building at the Southwick site. 
5. These four sites (a total of nine monitors) were discontinued 30 June 2002 as part of US EPA-mandated monitoring network re-engineering.
6. The CO monitor at Fifth and Muhammad Ali was discontinued 31 Dec. 2002.

Related Links

Each of these links will open in a new window.

• Air toxics monitoring sites operated by the University of Louisville for the West Jefferson County Community Task Force
• Monitoring sites elsewhere in Kentucky
• Monitors in Indiana:
  • Monitoring Network (Excel)
  • carbon monoxide
  • oxides of nitrogen
  • ozone
  • particulates (PM10)
  • particulates (PM2.5)
  • sulfur dioxide
  • toxics
  • Monitoring sites in Indianapolis