Romulus to Host Two Air-Quality Monitors as Part of Wayne County Just Air Network

Just Air, a community air-quality network, told the Romulus City Council on March 25 that it will install 100 fixed outdoor monitors across Wayne County over a three-year partnership with the county and that two monitors are planned for Romulus.

Jared Riley, founder and CEO of Just Air, said the network’s purpose is to provide neighborhood-level granularity so residents can see air-quality trends near where they live. Project manager Christie Allen said the program began last August, installations started in the prior three weeks, and the network’s data will be public via an app and dashboard. “We have a 3-year partnership with 100 monitors with Wayne County,” Allen said, adding that the project will run through 2026 and include community workshops and local outreach.

Councilmembers and residents pressed the presenters on local placement and coverage. Allen said the plan for Romulus is two monitors: one planned outside Romulus High School and one near the intersection of Northline Road and West Huron Drive; she described each monitor’s effective radius as about 1–3 miles. Council and residents asked whether monitors could be located closer to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport to capture aircraft-related emissions; residents noted airplane operations and nearby industrial activity as a local concern.

Riley said Wayne County is funding the project through the county health department and that much of the support comes from ARPA funds administered by the county. He framed the effort as a public-health study focused on asthma and hospitalization rates: “Wayne County has the highest rates of asthma, hospitalization in Michigan, and those help us better do something to pay attention to,” he said.

Allen described the data cadence and alerting: monitors sample on short rolling intervals (she said five-minute samples are aggregated into hourly averages comparable to the EPA’s Air Quality Index) and users can subscribe to receive alerts if a monitored location is unhealthy. Presenters said the dashboard will provide mitigation guidance (for example, wearing an N95 mask during wildfire smoke events) and that deeper analysis of disparities will follow as more data accumulates.

During public comment, resident Charles Miller thanked the presenters and noted the airport’s size and local health implications for children with asthma. The council did not take formal action on the presentation; the Just Air team said it will continue installing monitors and working with local stakeholders to determine final siting.

What’s next: Just Air said monitoring installations will continue through April (presenters’ timeline) and the network will operate through 2026; residents and council members seeking additional airport-area coverage were encouraged to follow up with the project team and Wayne County health officials.