Auckland's air quality

Standards and guidelines

• National Environmental Standards
• What are the standards?
• Exceedences of the standards
• Ambient Air Quality Guidelines
• Regional air quality targets.

National Environmental Standards

The Ministry for the Environment (MfE) has set National Environmental Standards (NES) to improve air quality and protect the health of the general population.

These standards are regulations issued under Sections 43 and 44 of the Resource Management Act (RMA) 1991 and apply nationally. The standards for the prevention of toxic emissions and the protection of air quality were introduced in October 2004.

What are the standards?

There are fourteen standards which include:

• five ambient air quality standards based upon the existing Ambient Air Quality Guidelines (AAQG).

National Environment Standards for ambient air quality from 1 September 2005

The ARC has identified areas where air quality is likely, or known, to exceed national air quality standards in the Auckland region. These areas are known as airsheds and can be viewed on the diagram below:

Auckland's Urban Airsheds

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• a design standard for new small-scale domestic wood-burning appliances. In most urban areas in New Zealand the main source of fine particle emissions is domestic fires. The introduction of the new design standard is expected to reduce fine particle concentrations and the associated health impacts.
• seven standards which ban various activities that discharge unacceptable quantities of dioxins and other toxics into the air, covering:

• a design standard for the collection and destruction of landfill gas at large landfills. The focus of this standard is to manage methane (one of the most important greenhouse gases) produced from landfills.

Exceedences of the standard

Under the RMA, the ARC is required to monitor air quality and report any concentration of a pollutant that exceeds the standard to the public.

Days of exceedences of ambient air standards in the last 12 months

NES Exceedences 1998-2007.jpg

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Ambient Air Quality Guidelines

The Ambient Air Quality Guidelines (AAQG) are the minimum requirements that outdoor air quality should meet in order to protect human health and the environment. The MfE published the AAQG as guidance under the RMA.

Ambient Air Quality Guidelines for key pollutants

* Note that guideline values are also set for Lead, Hydrogen sulphide, Benzene, 1,3-Butadiene, Formaldehyde, Acetaldehyde, Benzo(a)pyrene, Mercury, Chromium and Arsenic.

Number of days on which exceedence of ambient guidelines occurred in 2006:

For details on current sites listed above, please refer to TP296: The Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Network in the Auckland Region.

Regional air quality targets

Detailed in Chapter 4.1.4 of the Proposed Auckland Regional Plan: Air, Land and Water Plan (ALW Plan), the ARC has also developed regional targets for the key ambient air pollutants, primarily based on the MfE's Ambient Air Quality Guidelines.

The targets aim to:

• maintain air quality in areas where it is already good, and
• enhance air quality in areas where it is degraded or unacceptable.

For more information view our Airfacts 3: AQ Monitoring Network and Airfacts 7: AQ Standards and Targets.