Hamilton County proclaims Earth Day as environmental team highlights air, waste gains

Hamilton County commissioners on April 20 proclaimed April 22, 2025, as Earth Day and heard a presentation from Brad Johnson, director of Hamilton County Environmental Services, outlining local air-quality monitoring and waste-reduction efforts.

Johnson told commissioners the county operates 18 air-monitoring sites across five counties and detailed multi-decade declines in several priority pollutants. “I will be brief, but it is a very important day,” Johnson said. He noted that ozone and fine particulate matter remain the more challenging pollutants locally because of the region’s valley geography, even as levels of carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide have fallen.

The presentation focused on three themes: air monitoring and trends, waste diversion and community outreach. Johnson said the county tracks federal EPA primary pollutants, described a decline versus national trends for many contaminants and flagged ongoing difficulty meeting increasingly strict ozone standards in summer months. He said the county also uses lower-cost “sensor” monitors to get near–real-time alerts that can prompt targeted investigations.

Johnson described Hamilton County Resource (formerly the solid waste district) and county partnerships that support backyard composting, year-round rain-barrel sales, and yard-trimmings drop-offs (including expanded weekday service at an East Side site). He said the county’s 5|13 Green Workplace Certification program certified 19 additional facilities last year and called out food-rescue partnerships that diverted roughly 9,000 tons of food in 2024.

Commissioners praised the work and asked for additional detail about geographic and equity patterns in pollution. “One of the areas…we’ve looked at is areas of lower income get hit harder,” Johnson said when asked about environmental justice and locations such as Middletown where industrial sources are concentrated. He referenced a pending large industrial modernization project that he said could reduce future emissions.

Commissioner Stephanie Summerow Dumas asked whether the county has a list of neighborhoods with higher pollutant readings; Johnson said historic studies show some localized elevations but that measured levels generally remain below health standards, while underscoring ongoing improvement efforts and school-based monitoring partnerships.

Johnson also noted the county’s emergency planning for debris and waste after storms and floods, saying teams have debris-removal plans and staging arrangements developed with Rumpke and the county’s emergency management agency. Commissioners credited interdepartmental collaboration, citing partners including planning and development, public health, parks and the conservation district.

The board installed an Earth Day proclamation that traced local environmental organizing back to early 20th-century smoke-abatement efforts and cited recent recognitions—including Energy Star acknowledgments for five county facilities in 2024—and county grant programs that seed waste-innovation projects. Commissioners and staff paused for a photo following the proclamation.

Why it matters: Commissioners said the combination of long-running monitoring, grant-funded pilot programs and coordination with health and conservation partners positions the county to address persistent ozone and particulate challenges and to expand waste diversion efforts.