Home » Environment » Air » Airsheds
Airsheds in Tasman District
An Airshed is an area designated as a known high pollution area and gazetted to form part of the National Environment Standard for Air Quality.
Background Information About Airsheds
In 2004 the Government implemented a National Environmental Standard (NES) aimed at improving air quality. The standard replaced previous national air quality guidelines, and became law by regulation under the Resource Management Act. The standard covered emissions from domestic wood burners and ambient outdoor air quality.
As part of the implementation the regulations required the Council to define an airshed or airsheds (which were then gazetted by the Minister). In scientific terms, an airshed is an area of generally similar air, the movement of which has a predictable pattern, and the area is often confined by geographical boundaries such as hills. Airsheds have similar concentrations of PM10 and discharges to air in that airshed which contribute to the overall or ambient air quality in that airshed. Richmond was the only place in Tasman District where the air quality standard was breached regularly and by a significant amount. In 2006 Richmond was gazetted as an airshed.
The Council is required to report on any exceedences in the airshed. Council is also required to monitor levels of PM10 in that part of the airshed where there is one or more people, and where the standard is breached by the greatest margin or the most frequently and must report on air quality when and if the standards are exceeded. The Council must also carry out monitoring to measure the effectiveness of its management options it adopts to improve air quality. The present NES requires the Council to be on a straight line pathway from the current level of ambient air quality to the required standard of 50 ug/m3 by September 2013.
Tasman District Airshed
The District has a designated airshed centred in Richmond. The Richmond Airshed project was initiated as part of a nationwide initiative to improve air quality in towns and cities where pollution from domestic woodburners is known to effect the way people go about their day-to-day lives.