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Environment and Heritage

NSW Annual Air Quality Statement 2019

Air quality in New South Wales was greatly affected by the continuing intense drought conditions and unprecedented extensive bushfires during 2019, resulting in poorer air quality throughout the state.

 

Summary

Air quality in New South Wales (NSW) was greatly affected by the continuing intense drought conditions and unprecedented extensive bushfires during 2019. The poorer air quality than 2018 was primarily due to elevated particle pollution throughout the State.

The bushfire emergency saw around 4 million hectares burnt in NSW from July to December 2019, resulting in widespread smoke impacts on many regions through spring and early summer. In addition, continuing intense drought has led to an increase in widespread dust events throughout the year. A further source of particles came from hazard reduction burns in and around Sydney in the cooler months.

Levels of nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide easily met national standards, with the exception of an exceedance of the hourly nitrogen dioxide standard at the new Goulburn station during the bushfire emergency period.

Ozone levels increased compared with the previous year, due to effects of warm and dry weather and climatic conditions together with other factors such as emissions from extensive bushfires in the year, meeting the national standards on 91% of all days.

Air quality levels vary across the State depending on regions. Overall, air quality met standards for 91% of days during the year on the Central Coast down to 60% of days in the Northern Tablelands.

Ozone exceeded national standard levels on 29 days in 2019 (meeting the standards 92% of the time) in the Greater Metropolitan Region (GMR), compared with 7 days in 2018. There were an additional 4 days in regional NSW when ozone levels at either Goulburn or Gunnedah exceeded the national standards.

Particle pollution (PM10 and PM2.5 – airborne particulate matter less than or equal to 10 and 2.5 micrometres in diameter, respectively) increased due to more frequent exceptional events, such as bushfires and dust storms. Hazard reduction burning, to manage bushfire risk, also resulted in poor air quality in the Sydney region on some days during autumn and winter.

Air quality records broken in 2019

The year 2019 set a few highest records in NSW since 1994:

  • highest daily average PM2.5 level (442.7 µg/m3) in NSW since 1994, recorded at the temporary Port Macquarie bushfire emergency monitoring station on 15 November 2019 (during the bushfire emergency period). This surpassed the previous record of 415.6 µg/m3 from Wallsend on 23 September 2009 (during 2009 Red Dawn dust event).
  • highest annual average PM2.5 level (17.2 µg/m3) in NSW since 1994, recorded at Armidale in 2019. This surpassed the previous record of 11.9 µg/m3 from Liverpool in 2002. Armidale’s PM2.5 levels were elevated by smoke from domestic wood heaters in winter and bushfire smoke in spring and early summer.
  • highest annual average PM10 level (43.6 µg/m3) in NSW since 1994, recorded at Stockton, in the Port of Newcastle, in 2019. This surpassed the previous record of 38.7 µg/m3 from the same station in 2018. Due to its proximity to the coast, elevated PM10 levels at the Stockton station often occur due to sea salt under onshore winds. The levels in 2019 were also largely affected by dust and bushfire smoke in spring and early summer.
  • highest hourly average NO2 level (16.1 pphm) in NSW since 1994, recorded at Goulburn on 31 December 2019 (during the bushfire emergency period). This surpassed the previous record of 13.3 pphm from Bringelly on 15 January 1996.
  • highest 8-hour average CO level (9.6 ppm) in NSW since 1994, recorded at the temporary Port Macquarie bushfire emergency monitoring station (during the bushfire emergency period) on 15 November 2019. This surpassed the previous record in 1994-2018 recorded at non-roadside sites, which was 9.1 ppm from Campbelltown West on 21 October 2013 during the 2013 New South Wales bushfire emergency.

Note:

  1. The number of stations and the starting date of individual stations in the network have varied over time.
  2. The national goals for particle pollution exclude exceptional events – the state of compliance in 2019 with the national air quality goals will be reported in a separate report according to the requirements of the National Environment Protection (Ambient Air Quality) Measure (AAQ NEPM).

Focus areas

The 2019 Air Quality Statement has 4 focus areas:

  • Hunter Valley
  • Stockton
  • bushfires
  • dust storms.

More information