The Air Quality Management Division (AQMD) of the Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services is the regional agency that works with local, state and federal government agencies, businesses, communities and citizens to achieve and maintain healthy air quality for southwestern Ohio. The Hamilton County AQMD serves Clermont County, as well as Hamilton, Butler, and Warren counties. Some of the Division's many responsibilities include:
- coordinating permitting of air emissions
- conducting facility inspections
- responding to complaints
- providing open burning permits
- monitoring of air pollutants, and
- issuing smog alerts.
The complaint program focuses on outreach activities and operating the air quality hotline. The 24-hour hotline (513-946-7777 or 800-889-0474), established in 1991, provides prompt service to the air quality concerns of residents in the four-county area of Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, and Warren counties. The hotline enables residents to call a AQMD staff member 24-hours a day, seven days a week (with the exception of major holidays) to report any outdoor air quality concerns. For more information, see filing a complaint.
The Monitoring and Analysis Section of Hamilton County AQMD monitors air pollutants daily at several sites in the region, including two sites in Clermont County. Continuous ozone levels are monitored at a station in Batavia, wile continuous sulfur dioxide (SO2) levels are recorded near Bethel. Over the past three years, ozone levels in Batavia have exceeded the one-hour criterion only once, while the three-year average is just slightly higher than the established standard. Sulfur dioxide levels at Bethel have been very good - well below all criteria. Twice a day, monitoring data at all stations are assembled into a regional Air Quality Index (AQI). The index is a scale that measures five major air pollutants - inhalable particulates, ozone, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide. Hamilton County AQMD provides local media and the public with daily AQI values as an indication of that day's air quality.
View a pollen and mold count from Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services.