ORC concerned at early breaches of the clean air standard

ORC director of environmental information and science Dr John Threlfall said that Alexandra, Arrowtown, Clyde, Cromwell, Mosgiel, Dunedin and Milton have recorded air pollution levels that exceed the standard.

Under the NES there should only be one day a year with more than 50 micrograms of PM10 (fine particles) per m3 (50mg/m3) of air averaged over a 24-hour period.

"It is pretty early in winter and we have already seen some high air pollution recordings in the region, with the highest figures of 94mg/m3 and 92mg/m3 recorded at Milton on Tuesday and Alexandra on Wednesday," he said.

Currently ORC air monitoring sites are located at Alexandra, Arrowtown, Central Dunedin, Clyde, Cromwell, Lawrence, Milton, Mosgiel, Oamaru and South Dunedin.

Meanwhile, a new air monitor is currently being commissioned in Balclutha and will give ORC a better idea of air pollution levels in the South Otago town.

Last year Alexandra suffered the worst air pollution in Otago, with 70 days exceeding the NES. So far this year Oamaru and Lawrence are the only air monitoring site that have not exceeded the standard.

Meanwhile, the ORC Clean Heat Clean Air programme is part of the ORC strategy to improve poor winter air quality in Alexandra, Clyde, Cromwell, Arrowtown and Milton and improve home warmth. The progamme provides assistance towards the purchase and installation of insulation and clean heating appliances.

Low income earners can pay as little as $500 towards insulation and a further $500 towards a clean heating appliance. Grants of up to $2000 are available to people who do not meet the low income threshold.

So far 208 households have benefitted from new heating appliances and 694 insulation retrofits have been completed.

The programme has produced other benefits such as local job creation, increased sales for local home heating businesses and reduced energy bills for energy efficient homes.

Last month ORC won the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority's (EECA) Fujitsu General NZ Award for a project that improves the energy use in residential dwellings.

As another part of its clean air campaign ORC uses its newsletter Airzone to promote the clean heat clean air message to residents in Central Otago and Milton. This newsletter is distributed as an insert in local papers and available at all ORC offices.

Another service that ORC offers as means of keeping track on the quality of air in Otago is the AirInfo website, which can be viewed at air.orc.govt.nz

"This website is a good way for people to keep an eye on local air pollution levels and see how clean their air is, it is quite a strong educational tool," he said.

Dr Threlfall said regional councils have until 2013 to clean up polluted air so they meet the NES for air.