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Katestone News and Views
Ambient Air Quality NEPM Under Review
The National Environment Protection Council is currently reviewing the National Environment Protection (Ambient Air Quality) Measure. The review process commenced in 2005 and is expected to finish within the next 12 months. Two discussion papers have been released for consultation examining various aspects of the NEPM that are currently under review.
A brief review of the discussion paper on Air Quality Standards has highlighted the following:
- New evidence on health effects of criteria air
pollutants indicates that :
- Health effects associated with exposure to air pollution at levels below the current AAQ NEPM standards.
- CO, NO2, SO2, PM10 and PM2.5 are considered "non-threshold" pollutants which means that there will always be a certain level of risk associated with the standard whatever numerical value is set.
- Health effects due to exposure to Ozone are observed for longer averaging periods (8 hour average) than current standards.
- Health effects due to exposure to CO are observed for shorter averaging periods (1 hour average) than current standards.
- There is increasing evidence that the coarse fraction, PM10-2.5 is associated with adverse health effects.
- Lead in the general environment is well below current health standards. Concentrations around industrial sources may be better managed through adoption of Lead in the Air Toxics NEPM (designed to manage hot spots through monitoring investigation levels).
- Benzene and Benzo(a)pyrene are currently contained in the Air Toxics NEPM as monitoring investigation levels, a trigger for further action around hot spots. Both pollutants are found more widely in the environment and may require a regional air quality standard.
- The goals associated with the current standards are also under review. The current approach weakens the level of protection provided by the Standard by allowing a prescribed number of exceedances during a year. Possible alternatives include use of percentiles or the exclusion of data due to "exceptional" or "natural" events.
It should be noted that any changes to the standards would be undertaken through a separate process to vary the existing NEPM. If you are interested in a more in-depth discussion as to how this could potentially impact on your business please contact us.
Coal mines
Work with the coal mining industry and preparation of various air quality impact assessments is ongoing and has recently led to the award by the DECCW of a major project relating to particulate emissions from mining. Katestone Environmental are currently undertaking a project titled "International Best Practice Measures to Prevent and/or Minimise Particulate Emissions from Coal Mining". Read more about the project below.
International Best Practice Measures to Prevent and/or Minimise Particle Emissions from Coal Mining
The NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (DECCW) has commenced an environmental review of the NSW coal mining industry that aims to benchmark the performance of the coal mining industry against international best practice measures to prevent and/or minimise particle emissions. DECCW has contracted Katestone Environmental to complete the review with the following broad objectives:
- Establish existing practices for minimising particle emissions from NSW coal mines and benchmark them against international best practice
- Estimate the likely reduction in particle emissions and costs associated with adopting international best practice
Katestone Environmental has developed a scope of works for the study that includes:
- Literature review of international practices
- Documentation of NSW practice based on a survey, collection of relevant documents and inspections of mines in NSW
- Development of an emissions database to support cost benefit analysis
- Cost benefit analysis
The study has been completed and the report can be viewed here.
Gladstone LNG industry
The development of the LNG industry in Gladstone and extraction of coal seam gas from the Bowen Basin has again kept us busy. Katestone Environmental prepared a detailed air quality impact assessment and plume rise assessment as part of the EIS for the Australia Pacific LNG Project. Australia Pacific LNG is a joint venture between Origin Energy (Origin) and ConocoPhillips Australia LNG Pty Limited. We have also completed an air quality assessment for the supplementary EIS for the Queensland Curtis LNG Project, which has now received approvals from the Queensland Government.
CASA Plume Rise Assessment
Katestone Environmental has been working with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to revise the current Advisory Circular (AC) for the assessment of plume rise impact on aviation. All developments which have the potential to generate an exhaust plume with a vertical velocity above the threshold value of 4.3 m/s, should be assessed to determine the potential to impact on aircraft safety. Since the development of the AC in 2004 there has been considerable misinterpretation and misuse of the AC and the models available to undertake a plume rise assessment. The revision of the AC aims to make the process more transparent and easy for a proponent to determine what is required for their development.
Forecasting
Over the summer period Meat and Livestock Australia commissioned trial of a new high resolution numerical weather forecasting model to improve the forecasts of potential high heat load events at cattle feedlot stations. The current system which has been running for almost 10 years is based on forecasts provided by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology for existing Bureau automatic weather stations (AWS). This is limiting as the AWS are sometimes well removed (over 100 km in some cases) from the feedlot cattle stations, resulting in poor forecasts for a feedlot site.
The new system will provide a forecast that will be at most 9 km from the sites, and for the majority of the feedlots a maximum of only 4.5 km away. The service will be fully operation for the upcoming summer. It’s a free service and will be available on our web site by October.
Licensing
Katestone Environmental Director, Simon Welchman, was once on the other side of the approvals process. Simon spent five years with the Air Policy Section of the NSW Department of Environment (now DECCW). Simon’s knowledge of approvals and licensing processes for air quality as well as his sound understanding of what is required for different levels of assessment gives Katestone Environmental and our clients a head start in a project.
We can also provide sound advice on appropriate licence conditions for new or existing developments. Well-drafted licence conditions are focused on the environmental outcome that needs to be achieved, are measurable and enforceable, avoid unnecessary prescription, are achievable and consistent with the documents submitted within the approvals process. Poorly drafted licence and approval conditions can lead to regulatory uncertainty for the licensee and the regulator and potentially costly studies and negotiations down-the-track.
New Air Quality Standard for Sulfur Dioxide in the USA
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) recently revised the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) on 2 June 2010 to include a new air quality standard for the 1-hour average concentration of SO2. The new standard is 75 parts per billion by volume (ppbv).
To attain this standard, the 3-year average of the 99th percentile of the daily maximum 1-hour average at each monitor within an area must not exceed 75 ppb.
The numerical value of the standard is considerably lower than the current NEPM value of 200 ppb, however, due to the method of applying the value to a 3-year average of the 99th percentile of the daily maximum, it is not easy to compare the two standards directly.
Katestone Environmental has reviewed the past 10 years of SO2 monitoring data in Gladstone to the new US EPA criterion. The review indicates that the new criterion is achieved with the maximum ranging from 55 ppb at Targinie to 68 ppb at South Gladstone.
If you have a monitoring data set you would like reviewed please contact us and we can analyse your data to compare it to the US EPA NAAQS for SO2.