Air Quality - Annual Monitoring Summary 2010

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Nelson is surrounded by hills and has a settled climate.

Under clear skies during winter the air near the ground can be colder than the air above and smoke from domestic chimneys, factories and vehicle exhausts gets trapped.

Winter is also the time when smoke emissions from home heating sources are at their maximum.

The combined effect is that winter smoke concentrations can be much higher than normal for a city of this size.

Key results of the Annual Monitoring Summary 2010

Air quality has improved over the last decade in Nelson.

When monitoring commenced in the Victory Square area (airshed A) in 2001 the PM10 (National Environmental Standard 50 μg/m³) was exceeded for 81 days.

By 2010 the PM10 was only exceeded on 7 days.

The Nelson City Council has numerous initiatives to improve air quality which include an operative Air Quality Plan. The Air Quality Plan places controls on activities affecting air pollution.

Download the Air Quality - Annual Monitoring Summary 2010. (856KB PDF)