Air quality in the Mountains is set to be measured for the first time, possibly as early as Christmas, when eight portable ‘koalas’ will be put in place to check just how fresh the air actually is.
The portable solar powered ‘koala’ (knowing our ambient local air quality) pods are the recommendation of the climate scientists at the Office of Environment and Heritage, following community pressure for more than a year by Blue Mountains Unions and Community’s ‘Cover the Coal Wagons’ campaign. A larger monitor will also be placed in Katoomba.
Bodington and Lapstone Hills are two areas being suggested for the smaller monitoring pod locations.
The monitoring decision was made following a meeting with council, government officials and community members who attended the Environment Protection Authority’s regional air quality monitoring workshop last month. The EPA, OEH, NSW Health and NSW Rural Fire Service all presented at the workshop on September 25.
An EPA spokeswoman said “it was agreed that for the 12 months of monitoring, the air quality monitoring pod would be placed at Katoomba”.
“The location of other air quality sensors will be determined by the project steering committee, which will comprise of community and other stakeholder representatives.”
That steering committee was established earlier this month.
Giselle Howard, the NSW Environment Protection Authority regional director, metropolitan, said they had responded to community concerns to bring in temporary testing. The nearest NSW Office of Environment monitoring stations are at Bathurst and St Marys. Wentworth Falls’ air quality was briefly monitored (and cleared) for pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide, in 1988-89.
BMUC’s Cover the Coal Wagons Group co-ordinator, Peter Lammiman, called it the “first step”.
“Fresh air is one of the reasons so many people visit the world heritage-listed Blue Mountains … through this project we should begin to find out just how clean our air is, and what we can do to ensure it’s fresh and unpolluted,” Mr Lammiman said.
We know fresh air is one of the reasons so many visit.
- Peter Lammiman
The EPA has confirmed between 15-22 loaded coal trains, many 60 wagons long, travel through the Mountains daily. Coal wagons are routinely covered in Europe and doctors from the public health group - Doctors for the Environment believe train pollution could contribute to heart and lung disease, as well as asthma and some cancers.
The committee will decide whether to “distribute the koalas geographically across the Mountains or to cluster them in a location to attempt to discern specific sources (for example, transport or household (wood smoke) emissions)”, the EPA has said.
Representatives from BMUC, Doctors for Environment, Blue Mountains Conservation Society, - Lithgow Environment Group, Western Sydney University, Blue Mountains Council and Environmental Justice Australia are committee members. The OEH will sort out the approvals needed for siting of the pods with the relevant authorities.
Mr Lammiman said BMUC will still be calling for the covering of the coal wagons as well as having a Politics in the Pub with local NSW candidates prior to the State election and asking them about this and other local issues.
“Air quality is an important public health issue which affects everyone – it’s an issue that needs to be above politics.”
