Alachua County’s air quality is ranked among the lowest in Florida according to a report just released by the American Lung Association. The report showed air quality has remained at an unhealthy level, despite many cities showing improvements in air quality. Alachua County Environmental Protection Director Chris Bird says there are problems with ground level ozone.
“The contributors of that may or may not be local, and that’s why, with the monitoring that’s done in Alachua County and locally, it’s really hard to know from year to year how much of that’s being contributed from local sources or not,” Bird said.
Bird adds that the weather patterns also have a large impact on the amount of air pollution lingering in Alachua county.