State of the Environment

2006

Indicator: LD-36 Emissions to the land

Data

2001- 2004 Facility data for emissions to land
Substance Total (kg/year) 2001-02 Total (kg/year) 2002-03 Total (kg/year) 2003-04
Ammonia (total) 756,886 944,220 3,111,622
Chlorine 484,495 711,380 794,810
Chromium (III) compounds 146,906 102,848 303,710
Copper and compounds 22,952 117,646 298,291
Nickel & compounds 52,670 149,755 293,649
Total Volatile Organic Compounds 23,118 147,543 292,499
Fluoride compounds 378,908 354,517 276,015
Manganese and compounds 101,957 1,204,481 267,131
Sulfuric acid 64,380 215,004 172,082
Ethanol 4,076 43,488 147,792
Zinc and compounds 11,391 94,151 127,863
Boron and; compounds 30,348 45,537 71,489
Total Nitrogen 65,133 27,625 70,958
Cyanide (inorganic) compounds 211,446 16,696 67,678
Acetone 67,300 64,300 63,900
Total Phosphorus 8,182 3,832 23,345
Toluene (methylbenzene) 6,443 49,000 16,399
Xylenes (individual or mixed isomers) 1,727 12,080 14,721
Hydrogen sulfide 6,687 6,683 9,654
Chromium (VI) compounds 4,379 4,974 9,188
Hydrochloric acid 76 5,016 6,500
Cobalt and compounds 3,764 24,571 4,916
Lead and compounds 195,026 51,795 3,425
Arsenic and compounds 7,148 4,558 3,263
Phenol 309 9,199 2,994
Oxides of Nitrogen 76 0 1,037
Cadmium and compounds 890 1,647 602
Dichloromethane 22,842 21,851 583
Cumene (1-methylethylbenzene) 226 379 359
Ethylbenzene 559 671 276

Source: Department of the Environment and Heritage 2005, National Pollutant Inventory, viewed 22 Nov 2005, http://www.npi.gov.au/

Source: Australia's national database of pollutant emissions

What the data mean

At this stage, ammonia appears to be the major pollutant being emitted to land across the range of human activities that are monitored under the National Pollutant Inventory.

The NPI ranks substances by risk. Environmental hazard is assessed on the basis of toxicity, the substance’s ability to remain active in the environment and whether it accumulates in living organisms. Health hazard is assessed on the basis of toxicity and tendency to cause cancer or birth defects. Level of risk is calculated as a multiplication of hazard by exposure, so that a highly toxic substance where there is little likelihood of exposure has a low risk ranking, as does a mildly toxic substance where there is a higher likelihood of exposure.

On the NPI scale of 1-3, where 3 is highly harmful and 0 is negligibly harmful, ammonia scores a rating of 1 (merely “harmful”) to human health, and of 1.5 in terms of its environmental hazard. However, combined with the likelihood of exposure, its total hazard score is quite high at 2.5 (See Indicator LD-37 Emissions from activities that derive contributions from the land).

Data Limitations

Since the main producers of ammonia are animal production facilities, and only intensive animal production facilities are currently required to report their emissions to the NPI, the estimate of ammonia emissions to land should be considered a substantial underestimate.

The data relate only to emissions from facilities that emit sufficient quantities of pollutants to be required to report under the NPI. At this stage the apparent steady increase in reported emissions to the land over the years of the NPI is probably more indicative of facilities coming on board with reporting than of actual increases in emissions. Ultimately, however, it is expected that the trends will be indicative of changes in actual emissions.

Data for the NPI are compiled from facility reports and are only as good as the data provided. Apparent anomalies may be due to errors in the data, or to unusual events at the facilities during the reporting year. Only the emissions, not the activities or events responsible for them, are routinely reported to the NPI.

Issues for which this is an indicator and why

Land - Direct pressure of human activities on the land - Pollution to and from the land 

Pollution, from all sources, that ends up in or on the land, on vegetation or on animals or in the soil, may impact on those life forms directly and also has the potential to infiltrate the food chain and affect the health of a potentially very wide range of species.

Other indicators for this issue:

Human Settlements - Pressures created by human settlements on the environment - Waste 

Emissions of pollutants to the land are a pressure created by human settlements.

Other indicators for this issue:

Key

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