Air Monitoring Sites

Table 1 below lists active and recently discontinued ambient air pollution monitoring sites in Louisville/Jefferson County.  It does not list toxics monitoring sites. All of the sites listed here are operated by the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District. There are 9 active sites.  The map of air monitoring sites shows the locations.

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 2 lists active and recently discontinued monitors.  There are now 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, PM2.5 at four sites, PM10 at two sites, and meteorological parameters at one site continuously 24 hours 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 24 hours 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 PM2.5 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: Sites

Site Number

Site Name

Site Address

ZIP Code

Pollutants (See Key)

Notes

EPA (AQS) KY
21-111-0027 6054 Bates (see photo) 7601 Bardstown Road (Bates Elementary School) 40291 O3, PM2.5 3
21-111-0032 6066 Wellington 4800 Kaufman Lane (Wellington Elem.) 40216   5
21-111-0043 6101 Southwick (see photo) 3621 Southern Avenue (Southwick Community Center) 40211 PM10, PM2.5 4
21-111-0044 6102 Wyandotte (see photo) Beecher & Warren Avenues. (Wyandotte Park) 40215 PM10, PM2.5  
21-111-0045 6104 Fifth & Muhammad Ali 424 W. Muhammad Ali Boulevard (Kentucky Towers) 40203   6
21-111-0046 6105 Seneca (see photo) 3510 Goldsmith Lane (Seneca High School) 40218 CO  
21-111-0048 6108 Barret (see photo) 850 Barret Avenue (APCD) 40204 PM2.5  
21-111-0051 6111 Watson Lane (see photo) 7201 Watson Lane (Watson Lane Elementary School) 40272 O3, SO2, PM2.5 3
21-111-0052 6112 Outer Loop 7800 Preston Highway at Outer Loop 40219   5
21-111-1009 6059 Portland 2425 Portland Avenue (Portland Fire Station) 40212   5
21-111-1019 6052 Fire 20 (see photo) 1735 Bardstown Road (Fire Station 20) 40205 CO  
21-111-1021 6055 WLKY TV 1918 Mellwood Avenue (WLKY TV Studios) 40206 O3, NOx  
21-111-1041 6083 Firearms Training (see photo) 4201 Algonquin Parkway (Lou. Police Firearms Training Center) 40211 SO2 3, 4
21-111-3001 6038 Okolona 7709 Preston Highway 40219   5

 

Table 2: Monitors

Pollutant (See Key)

Site

Monitor Type (See Key)

Sampling Interval

Start Date

Notes

CO Fire 20 SLAMS/ PSIS 1 hour Jan. 1974 1
Seneca NAMS/ PSIS 1 hour Dec. 1986 1
Humidity, Relative Southwick SPMS 1 hour Apr. 2004  
NOx (NO2 and NO) WLKY TV SLAMS/ EEMS/ PSIS 1 hour July 1993 1
O3 Bates SLAMS/ PSIS 1 hour Jan. 1976 1
Watson Lane SLAMS 1 hour July 1992 1
WLKY TV NAMS/ EEMS/ PSIS 1 hour June 1975 1
PM10 -HV/SSI
Southwick     Jan. 1983 4, 5
    July 2002 2, 5
Wyandotte     Mar. 1987 5
PM10- continuous Wyandotte SPMS 1 hour Aug. 2002 1
Southwick SPMS 1 hour Feb. 2003 1
SPMS 1 hour Feb. 2003 2
PM2.5 - FRM Barret SLAMS 24 hours Jan. 1999  
Southwick SLAMS 24 hours Jan. 1999 4
SPMS 24 hours Jan. 1999 2, 4
Watson Lane SPMS 24 hours Jan. 1999  
Wyandotte SLAMS 24 hours Jan. 1999  
PM2.5 - continuous Barret SPMS 1 hour Jan. 2002 1
Bates SPMS 1 hour Jan. 2002 1
Southwick SPMS 1 hour Jan. 2002 1
Watson SPMS 1 hour Jan. 2002 1
PM2.5 - speciation Barret SPMS 24 hours Nov. 2001 7
Southwick SPMS 24 hours Nov. 2001  
Pressure, Barometric Southwick SPMS 1 hour May 2004  
Rainfall Barret SPMS 1 hour June 2004  
Solar Radiation Barret SPMS 1 hour June 2004  
SO2 Firearms Training NAMS/ EEMS/ PSIS 1 hour Apr. 1978 1
Watson Lane SLAMS 1 hour July 1992 1
Wellington       5
Wind Speed and Direction Southwick SPMS 1 hour Apr. 2004 3

Key:

Pollutants: CO: carbon monoxide, NOx: nitrogen oxides, O3: ozone, SO2: sulfur dioxide, PM10: inhalable particulates (< 10 microns), PM2.5: fine particulates (< 2.5 microns), wind: wind speed and direction.  Note: The PM2.5 sites also monitor ambient temperature and relative humidity.

US EPA monitor types: NAMS: national air monitoring station, SLAMS: state or local air monitoring station (every NAMS is a SLAMS), SPMS: special purpose monitoring station, EEMS: emergency episode monitoring station, PSIS: pollutant standards index station (see note 1).

Sampling terms: HV/SSI: high-volume particulate sampler with size-selective inlet.  FRM: federal reference method; the FRM for PM2.5 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 PSIS.
  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 PM2.5 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 nine monitors were discontinued 30 June 2002 as part of US EPA-mandated monitoring network re-engineering.  Four sites were discontinued as a result.
  6. The CO monitor at Fifth and Muhammad Ali was discontinued 31 Dec. 2002.
  7. PM speciation sampling at Barret was discontinued 21 March 2006.

 

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