Hialeah to get costly new air quality monitoring station

Written by Kelly Sanchez on October 27, 2026

Miami-Dade County’s air quality remains generally good as officials plan a new monitoring station near Hialeah, according to Susana Palomino, chief of the county’s air quality monitoring division.

Ms. Palomino, who works at Miami-Dade County’s Department of Environmental Resources Management (DERM), attributed favorable conditions to the county’s peninsula location, east-to-west breezes, flat topography, limited polluting industry and increased use of electric and hybrid vehicles.

“Our air pollution mostly comes from mobile sources,” she said.

DERM is responsible for regulatory air quality monitoring in Miami-Dade County. Its monitoring stations measure five of the six criteria pollutants regulated under the federal Clean Air Act: sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and particulate matter, including fine particles known as PM2.5 and larger particles known as PM10.

“We make sure that we calibrate and maintain these instruments to collect the data that is necessary,” Ms. Palomino said, “and then in the office we have a QA/QC (Quality Assurance/ Quality Control) group that makes sure this data is compliant in the way that we have to submit that to the state and the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).”

When monitoring stations record unusual readings, staff check whether the cause is an equipment problem or a change in air quality. The county also investigates complaints about emissions from individual facilities and takes any necessary compliance action. Facilities that report excess emissions are expected to explain what measures they are taking to prevent similar incidents, Ms. Palomino said.

“Certainly, the regulations and the programs that we manage – the permitting program, the compliance program for air quality – those are key to make sure that facilities are in check, that they are complying with the permitting requirements, their permit conditions and the best management practices that can be implemented so we don’t have excess releases or emissions that are out of range,” Ms. Palomino said.

“So whenever something like that happens – because it could be accidentally happening, right? – facilities are usually self-reporting those incidents, especially the large emitters, and we get that information from them,” she continued. “Or if we receive the complaint again, we go and investigate, and when we receive that from them directly, at the same time, they are supposed to give us what kind of remedial actions they are taking to avoid these emissions or excess emissions from happening in the future.”

DERM is working with Miami-Dade County Public Schools to add a new particulate matter instrument at a school near Hialeah. The station would collect air quality data for the surrounding area, not just the school property.

“Mind you,” Ms. Palomino said, “this is very costly, and it requires a lot of coordination with other agencies, not only in the county but where we are planning to place the instrument, it requires a lot of coordination.”

Ms. Palomino said Miami-Dade’s air quality is generally comparable to that of neighboring Broward and Palm Beach counties.

“They essentially are at the same, more-or-less the same level as we are,” she said.