In order to observe and assess the status of air quality within Weld County, the Board of County Commissioners approved and successfully contracted the installation of three local air monitoring stations in December 2020. The monitoring stations, located at the Missile Site Park (west of Greeley), in Hereford (near the Wyoming border), and in Orchard (at the Weld and Morgan County border), began recording data in early 2021.
Each monitoring site continuously collects ozone and meteorological data. The Missile Site Park also collects data on ozone precursors, specifically nitrogen oxides (NOx), and currently hosts a volatile organic compounds (VOC) monitor for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's Air Pollution Control Division.
Additionally, the Missile Site Park and Orchard sites serve as monitoring sites for the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP), which partners with local stakeholders to collect field samples of nitrogen deposition (NTN program) and ammonia (AMoN) in order to track and observe trends across the country.
Weld County Environmental Health Specialists visit the Missile Site Park and Orchard sites weekly and the Hereford site monthly, to collect samples and perform site and equipment maintenance.
The Weld County Air Monitoring page posts the current meteorological dashboard for all three sites and the quarterly reports for the air pollutant data collected at each site.