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Douglas County health staff outline new monitors and public air‑quality tools
Summary
The county health department described expanded ambient and near‑road air monitoring, a move to minute‑level public reporting, and plans for photochemical VOC monitoring, citing wildfire smoke days and long‑term ozone declines.
Russ, supervisor for Air Quality, Sanitation and Sanitary Engineering at the Douglas County Health Department, told the board the department maintains a network of stationary ambient monitors and is expanding public access to live data.
"I am the supervisor for the air quality sanitation and sanitary engineering programs at the Douglas County Health Department," Russ said as he outlined the agency's monitoring and outreach work. He pointed to live hourly displays on douglascountyairquality.com and noted that the department sends forecasts through EnviroFlash.
Russ traced recent drivers of poor air quality to wildfire smoke and seasonal burns and highlighted longer‑term progress on ozone: "If you look at the ozone numbers, basically since 1997, uh you can definitely see a sharp decline in in ozone across Douglas County," he said, attributing the trend to industrial and emissions controls.
He flagged two near‑term monitoring projects: a federally required near‑road monitor "since population went over a million people, uh we are required to have a near‑road monitor," which the department expects to site near a Phillips location off 72nd Street; and photochemical assessment monitoring (PAMS) for VOCs at the Encore monitoring site, which will use a gas chromatograph and require operator training.
The presentation also covered indoor air work (mold, odors), a recently launched pollen count, and partnerships with the National Weather Service to broaden public alerts. Russ said the county sends some filters for chemical speciation and maintains one of the nation’s in‑core multi‑pollutant sites adjacent to the health department.
The department proposed improved public education tied to website analytics and forecast enrollment, and said it will continue to refine its monitoring footprint as population and regulatory requirements change.
