Monitoring equipment which measures air pollution in Balclutha will be shifted because the present location does not accurately reflect pollution levels throughout the town, the Otago Regional Council's air-quality scientist says.
The equipment, now at St Joseph's Primary School, on the flat in central Balclutha, will be relocated to a hill suburb site this winter, Deborah Mills says in a report to tomorrow's ORC natural resources committee meeting.
Balclutha residents relied heavily on wood and coal for home heating and that released very small particulates into the air, Ms Mills said.
Continuous monitoring had begun at St Joseph's in June 2009 to see how many times PM10 (very small particulates) levels breached the National Environment Standard of 50mcg per cubic metre of air (50 ug/m3) and the Otago Air Plan target of 35 ug/m3.
The data showed national standards had been exceeded on four nights since monitoring began, while air-plan goals had been exceeded on 15 days.
Central Balclutha was an area of mixed land use where it was thought most of the town's particulates would gather.
However, a study measuring pollution levels at 27 sites throughout the town showed levels in the hill suburbs were generally two to three times higher than those on the flat, with one hill suburb "hotspot" recording a level of 268 ug/m3 - more than five times higher than the national standard and more than seven times higher than the air-plan target.
The new hill suburb location, which was not identified in the report, would verify conditions in the hill suburbs and would also enable the ORC to comply with national standards rules that monitoring take place in the "worst" air-quality site, she said.
