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Summary

In June 1998 the National Environment Protection Measure for Ambient Air Quality set the desired environmental outcome for ambient air that allows for the adequate protection of human health and wellbeing. New South Wales has developed a Monitoring Plan to assess compliance with this Measure.

The majority of the monitoring will occur in the industrial and high population region containing Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong. This region contains over 60% of the 6.04 million people resident in NSW in 1996. It also contains much of the industry of the State.

NSW will characterise the air quality to which the general population is exposed in this region by monitoring all air pollutants of interest at a network of trend stations. These stations will capture the majority of pollution events that may occur from time to time, but they will be supplemented by additional permanent upper bound stations at which selected pollutants only will be monitored to ensure that all major pollutant events are captured and reported.

Campaign monitoring will be undertaken in regional centres. Initial monitoring will be in Albury, Wagga Wagga, Bathurst and Tamworth. Campaign monitoring will be used to validate and review the screening measures applied to the urban centres outside the main axis. This monitoring will also be used to assess the need for trend stations in these centres. In addition, campaign monitoring will be undertaken in the Central Coast area of the Sydney region.

In total, NSW initially intends to monitor the majority of pollutants at ten trend stations, selected individual pollutants at six additional permanent upper bound stations, and selected pollutants at four campaign stations in provincial cities.

NSW EPA has NATA accreditation for the air quality monitoring it undertakes. Annual reports will be provided summarising the monitoring results from the nominated AAQ NEPM stations, and comparing these results to the AAQ NEPM goals.

Stations nominated for AAQ NEPM reporting purposes (by parameter)

Region	Location	Station type performance (P), trend (T), or campaign (C)	Ozone	Nitrogen dioxide	PM10	Carbon monoxide	Sulfur dioxide	Lead
Sydney	Blacktown	T	X	X	X	X	X
	Bringelly	T	X	X	X		X
	CBD	P				X		X
	Central Coast (1)	C	X	X	X		X
	Lidcombe	T	X	X	X	X*	X*
	Liverpool	C	X	X	X	X	X*
	Macarthur(2)	T	X	X	X	X	X
	Oakdale	P	X		X*
	Richmond	T	X	X	X		X
	Rozelle	T	X	X	X*	X		X
	St Marys	P	X
	Woolooware	T	X	X	X		X

*    indicates parameters nominated but not currently measured
(1) Campaign monitoring is scheduled to begin in the Central Coast in January 2004
(2) Macarthur station scheduled for January 2003

Notes
All sites other than the CBD site meet the definition of a neighbourhood site as given in section 7 of AS 2922-1987.
Trend sites are generally representative of regional population exposure and generally approximate the PRC GRUB definition (PRC 2000b).
The CBD is a peak site for motor vehicle emission impacts (CO and Pb).
Liverpool is a campaign site to be used until the Macarthur site is established.
Oakdale is an upper bound site for ozone in a rural area.
St Marys is a generally representative upper bound site for ozone that generally approximates the PRC GRUB definition (PRC 2000b).

Stations nominated for AAQ NEPM reporting purposes (by parameter) - (continued)

Region	Location	Station type performance (P), trend (T), or campaign (C)	Ozone	Nitrogen dioxide	PM10	Carbon monoxide	Sulfur dioxide	Lead
Lower Hunter	Newcastle	T	X	X	X*	X	X*
	Beresfield	C			X
	Wallsend	C	X	X			X	X (C)*
	Maitland3	T	X	X	X		X	X(C)
Illawarra	Albion Park	P	X	X	X		X
	Warrawong	P					X	X (C)*
	Kembla Grange	P	X		X*
	Wollongong	T	X	X	X	X	X
Tamworth	Tamworth	C October 2000			X
Bathurst	Bathurst	C July 2000	X		X
Wagga Wagga	Wagga Wagga	C April 2001			X
Albury	Albury	C June 2000			X
Orange	Orange	C January 2004			X
Dubbo	Dubbo	C January 2004			X
Lismore	Lismore	C January 2004			X

*   indicates parameters nominated but not currently measured
(3) Maitland station scheduled for January 2003
(C) denotes campaign monitoring of a parameter at a site that is classified as performance or trend

Notes
All sites meet the definition of a neighbourhood site as given section 7 of AS 2922-19987.
Trend sites are generally representative of regional population exposure and generally approximate the PRC GRUB definition (PRC 2000b).
Albion Park is an upper bound site for ozone in a semi-rural area.
Kembla Grange is an upper bound site for ozone in an area where there is increasing urbanisation.
Warrawong is a locally representative site close to heavy industry. It is upper bound for sulfur dioxide.
Beresfield and Wallsend are campaign sites to be used until the Maitland site is established.