Since the 1960's Mecklenburg County Air Quality ​(MCAQ) has operated a monitoring program to provide high quality data used to determine compliance with federal standards and inform the general public about air quality conditions. In 2015, MCAQ collected 117,686 measurements with 34 monitors at 6 monitoring stations.

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OZONE

Mecklenburg County exceeded the federal standard for ozone 9 days in 2015. However, the Mecklenburg County 2015 compliance value demonstrates compliance with the federal health-based standards for ozone.
Learn more about ground-level ozone.​

Nearly 90% of ozone-forming air pollution in Mecklenburg County comes from mobile sources likes cars, trucks, and construction equipment. There are two reliable indicators of on-road mobile source air pollution:​

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​1. Registered vehicles – The total number of on-road vehicles registered in Mecklenburg County increased from 707,195 vehicles in 2012.

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​2. Vehi​cle Miles Traveled (VMT) – The average number of miles traveled each day by on-road vehicles increased from 33,062,395 miles in 2012. ​

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Charlotte-area commuters are encouraged to
choose a cleaner c​ommute (like carpooling, taking transit, walking or biking) to improve local air quality. On an average day in 2015, 83,565 commuters used Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) services as an alternative to driving alone.

Stationary sources are generally larger sources of air pollution that are not mobile. MCAQ permits 11 major (Title V) sources, 204 minor sources, and 317 gasoline stations (Stage 1). A major source is one that emits, or has the potential to emit, pollutants over a major source threshold. A minor source is any source which emits fewer pollutants than the major source threshold.