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Department of the Environment and Heritage, April 2004
ISBN 0 6425 4990 7
This national report describes current and historic air quality in major urban airsheds in Australia. The report presents an analysis of national air quality based on 2001 data, and examines the trends and tendencies over the past decade or so, with emphasis on the period from 1991 to 2001.
The report uses the National Environment Protection (Ambient Air Quality) Measure (AAQ NEPM) standards or advisory reporting standards as yardsticks for assessing air quality. The intention is not to assess compliance, as it is recognised that the AAQ NEPM standards did not apply over this period.
The report will enable a better assessment of air quality in Australia and comparison of air quality across major cities. It will inform decisions on air quality by jurisdictions, and provide baseline data for researchers in the field.
The report establishes a scientific baseline on which future monitoring and reporting of air quality can build, noting that monitoring and reporting in compliance with the AAQ NEPM formally commenced in 2002. In addition, the report presents comprehensive air quality statistics, establishes methods for analysis, and outlines procedures and formats for presenting annual air quality data in a nationally consistent manner. In this context, the report provides a methodology that could be adapted as a model for future national status and trends reports.
The National Environment Protection Council (NEPC), in 1998, set health-based ambient air quality standards for six pollutants, namely, carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), photochemical oxidants as ozone (O3), sulfur dioxide (SO2), lead (Pb) and particles as PM10. In May 2003, the NEPC varied the AAQ NEPM to include advisory reporting standards for particles as PM2.5.
In this report data provided by jurisdictions have been analysed, and NEPM-related annual statistics generated and compared against the national standards for an assessment of national air quality. The 10-year goal of the AAQ NEPM specifies that by 2008 the short-term standards for CO, NO2, O3 and SO2 can be exceeded on only one day per year, and the PM10 standard can be exceeded on only five days per year. The second-highest (for CO, NO2, O3 and SO2) or the sixth-highest (for PM10) daily maximum concentration in a calendar year therefore is used as an important indicator of assessments against the standards. In addition to the NEPM-related statistics, percentiles have been used as indicators in describing air quality and site-specific trends.
The desired environmental outcome of the AAQ NEPM is to achieve the goal as assessed in accordance with the monitoring protocol by 2008. Jurisdictions are required to report annually on progress towards achieving the goal.
In total, the report covers 79 sites where one or more of the seven AAQ NEPM pollutants are monitored. Almost all of these sites are in major urban areas, mostly in the capital cities. However, with the making of the AAQ NEPM, data from the smaller regional centres are also becoming available.
Air quality in 2001 and trends for sites for which data have been provided are summarised for each pollutant. These findings must be interpreted with care, bearing in mind the limitations of the pre-NEPM data, data availabilities and in many cases the short trend periods.
The data for 2001 have been used to prepare a model national summary of the status of air quality against AAQ NEPM standards for a given year. At a glance, in 2001, NEPM standards were exceeded only for O3, PM10 and SO2. The advisory reporting standards for PM2.5 also were exceeded. The standards and goal for CO, NO2 and Pb were met at all sites. During the last decade, there has been a dramatic downward trend in Pb and significant decreases in CO, SO2 and to a lesser extent in NO2 levels, but O3 and particle levels have remained relatively high (at or above the levels of the NEPM standards). Major urban centres, including the capital cities, are now reporting levels well below the NEPM standards for Pb, SO2, CO and NO2. Ozone, PM10 and PM2.5 are the pollutants of concern, having peak concentrations at or above the NEPM standards and no consistent downward trend.
The improvements in air quality are, to a large extent, a result of the effective implementation of regulations, in particular, of the national strategies on unleaded petrol and motor vehicle emission controls, and the advances in industrial technologies. In recent years there have been some extreme pollution events, associated with drought-related bushfires and dust storms that are outside the control of environmental agencies.
A brief pollutant-specific summary across all sites follows. In this summary, the highest of the second-highest station daily maxima is referred to as the 'highest second daily maximum'.
This report has achieved a number of important milestones; in particular, it has:
These results provide a framework for future work and directions, and should assist the development of sound national and local air quality management strategies and policy responses.