THE lack of a national health standard for particulate matter 2.5s (PM2.5) is why the new air quality monitoring network will measure PM10s instead.
However, when standards are in place and the technology can deliver the information, the network will be upgraded.
A public meeting facilitated by the Department of Environment and Climate Change Water (DECCW) in Singleton on Tuesday night explained to 77 interested residents how the network will work and it was very clear the project was a work in motion.
Designed by PAE Holmes air sciences specialist consultant Nigel Holmes, the network will see 14 air quality monitors, about the size of a garden shed, strategically placed across the Upper Hunter.
Air science specialist and consultant with PAE Holmes, Nigel Holmes said the proposed sites were suggestions only and could change.
Precise location would require negotiation with land owners and were some time off.
The locations revealed at Tuesday’s meeting are: north of Merriwa which would be used as a benchmark to measure air quality coming into the Upper Hunter; south of Aberdeen; three surrounding Muswellbrook; Jerrys Plains; Camberwell; Maison Dieu; Warkworth; Bulga; Mt Thorley and one north-west of Singleton and two on the southern side of Singleton.
Denman residents expressed disappointment at not being included and a meeting on Wednesday night in Muswellbrook was told the Merriwa site may be re-located to Denman to meet community expectations.
Mr Holmes said the focus of the network was dust and would measure PM 10s from a health perspective and that “we still haven’t got our act together on PM2.5s.”
“The technology for PM10s is fixed and we will understand the information,” he said.
Mr Holmes said the community could expect to find if air quality in the Upper Hunter was above or below goals.
He said the information would assist in identifying problems and to devise a management program and fix the problems.
The network is anticipated to cost as much as $1.5million and will be funded by coal mines operating in the area.
DECCW head of Newcastle region Mitchell Bennett said there was already an ‘awful lot’ of (air quality) monitoring in the Hunter now.
He said there were 400 dust deposit gauges and 40 measured PM 10s.
“The trouble is monitoring is collected by industry, by the mine companies, and not collated and not available, not real time and not analysed from a whole of Valley basis,” Mr Bennett said.
He said the objectives of the system was to provide government, industry and community with real information on air quality and trends as a way to compare it to ambient goals.
The system would also provide information to identify the causes and sources of monitored pollutants.
The system proposed for the Upper Hunter is equivalent to Sydney’s and residents would be able to access the data via the DECCW website.
DECCW Hunter Region manager Grahame Clark described the project as large and difficult and not set in cement.
Mr Clarke said the DECCW would run with the science now available but that was not to say the system wouldn’t adapt and change.
He said the system should reveal what the dust levels are and what the community is exposed to.
There was some disappointment that the system would not monitor emissions from power stations but Mr Clarke said there was already a protocol in place to do this.
The steering committee behind the project is chaired by the DECCW and involves representatives from local government, coal and power industries, the NSW Minerals Council, Department of Planning, Department of Industry and Investment and NSW Health.
A request to include community representation on the monitoring committee was acknowledged and the DECCW is accepting public submissions on the proposal via its website.
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