Air

LAWA

Land, Air, Water Aotearoa (LAWA) has been established by like-minded organisations with a view to helping local communities find the balance between using natural resources and maintaining their quality and availability. LAWA connects us with the environment by sharing environmental data and information.

LAWA is a collaboration of organisations with a common aim: to tell the story of our environment.

LAWA West Coast Air Quality

Reefton Air Quality Monitoring

PM10 is a measure of the amount of small particles in the air (smaller than 10 micrometers). These small particles tend to cause respiration problems at high concentrations. The National Environmental Standard for Air Quality (NESAQ 2004) limit is a daily average of no more than 50 micrograms/m3 of PM10. An exceedance occurs when there has been an average of more than 50 micrograms/m3 of PM10 recorded over a 24 hour period. The NESAQ allows one exceedance per year. Wind strength and direction, as well as daily temperature variations, have a lot to do with the fluctuations in air quality. In September 2016 the air quality site was moved to a new location in Reefton due to the sale of the previous site.

There have been two exceedances of this standard so far in 2020. The highest 24hr average PM10 this winter, 52 micrograms/m3, was recorded 25 June.

Maintenance carried out on the air quality monitoring machine is shown on the graph as the gap between 20 August and 22 September.

https://www.lawa.org.nz/explore-data/west-coast-region/air-quality/reefton/reefton-aq-at-school-pool

Annual exceedances of the National Standard since 2006

See here for more information and background reports on air quality in Reefton.