Page 2593 - Week 07 - Thursday, 18 June 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (3.31): I thank Ms Le Couteur for bringing this matter forward. It seems that it is an issue of some concern and it is something that from time to time as members we receive complaints from our constituents about—the inappropriate use of wood fires. I need to place on the record that I suppose it could be seen that I have a conflict of interest in that most of my domestic heating comes from a wood fire, which I seek to maintain at as high a standard as possible, and I also happen to be the owner of a pizza oven which gets fired up from time to time. I also do use a reputable wood merchant.
The most recent data available about air quality is contained in the 2007 ambient air quality report, which is a measure of our performance against the ambient air quality national environment protection measure which is available on the National Environment Protection Council website. That information is derived from data collected at the performance monitoring station located at Monash in the Tuggeranong Valley. It is appropriate that the monitoring station is in the Tuggeranong Valley because it seems that the Tuggeranong Valley, because of its geography, is an area of considerable concern. This station is located so as to be generally representative of what is called the upper bound pollutant concentrations and it is hence called a GRUB station.
The report notes that by using GRUB stations to monitor the ambient air across a region, we can be reasonably sure that, if the national environment protection measure standards are met at those sites, then most of the total population of the region would be exposed to air at or below these pollutant levels. In this way, the National Environment Protection Council’s desired environmental outcome of adequate protection of human health and wellbeing should be assured.
A number of different types of readings are taken at the GRUB station in Monash. One of them measures the particulate matter of less than 10 microns, as Ms Le Couteur has said, and this is the measure that is most impacted by wood smoke. The NEPM standard for this measure is approximately 50 micrograms per cubic metre. Whilst the report notes that the levels were elevated during winter, with the main cause coming from wood smoke, there were only five occasions during 2007 when the standard was exceeded. One of these occurred in January and was due to the bushfires in Victoria and two occurred in April. The highest was, in fact, in April and was due to fuel reduction activity in the Tumut region.
It is worth noting that there were only two exceedences in the period where the use of wood fires would be usual to occur, and they were in the very early part of June, and these two exceedences in June could be attributed to wood smoke.
It is interesting to note that for the remaining colder months of the year there were no exceedences, with the highest occurring in late June, and both of the exceedences being 10 milligrams per cubic metre or 20 per cent less than the national standard. As Ms Le Couteur said, there is another measure, which is the 2.5 micron measure, which has only been reliably and authoritatively collected since April 2007, and in the period of that collection there were a number of exceedences. It was exceeded eight times during 2007. Most of those exceedences were in the April period that coincided with
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .