Welcome to the Division of Air Quality’s (DAQ) homepage.

The major goal of the Division is to ensure the air is clean, from both a public health and welfare perspective. Welfare impacts of air pollution include damage to plants and other property. Health effects can be short term (acute) or long term (chronic).

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adopts National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for the common air pollutants, and the states have the primary responsibility to attain and maintain those standards. Air quality data from New Jersey’s air monitoring sites can be accessed from www.njaqinow.net/. New Jersey air quality has improved significantly over the last 40 years since Earth Day, but exceeds the current standards for ozone throughout the state and fine particles in our urban areas. New Jersey has attained the sulfur dioxide (except for a portion of Warren County), lead, and nitrogen dioxide standards. The DAQ also regulates the emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) designated by the federal EPA.

NJDEP manages air quality with ambient air monitoring, inventories of sources, emission reduction plans, rules, permits, stack testing, air quality modeling and risk assessment, vehicle testing, inspections and enforcement. More details on these and related activities to control air pollutants are available here.

Inspection of sources of air pollution, responding to complaints about air pollution, and enforcing air pollution rules is done by the Air Compliance and Enforcement Program. We also work closely with the NJDEP's Greenhouse Gas and Energy Program. The regulation of greenhouse gas air pollutants is a relatively new area of emphasis.