Air monitoring report 2004

Overview

Victoria's air was generally clean in 2004. In an international context, Melbourne's air quality (compared to similar urban centres) remains relatively good. There has been little change in air quality over the last decade, with improvements in emissions counteracted by pressures such as increasing population and vehicle usage.

While the air quality objectives were met for most pollutants, particle pollution continues to be an issue needing attention. The main cause of high levels of particles in 2004 was windblown dust. Particles monitoring in 2004 showed:

• In Melbourne there are still occurrences where the visibility and particles (as PM₁₀, particles smaller than 10 micrometres) objectives are not met. The number of days when the visibility objective is not met has remained around 20 days for the last ten years; 2004 results were a significant improvement over the drought/bushfire affected results of 2003.

• In Geelong the PM₁₀ objective was exceeded on 11 days. The visibility objective was not met on one day.

• In the Latrobe Valley there were 15 days when visibility was poorer than the objective, due predominantly to fuel reduction burning. The PM₁₀ objective was not met on one day.

• In the rural cities of Shepparton, Bendigo and Mildura, there were some days when the PM₁₀ objective was not met.

EPA is developing a program to further investigate and manage particle pollution across Victoria.

The Melbourne/Geelong region remains an area that will at times experience ozone episodes. In 2004 some stations had a single day when levels exceeded the objectives.

The air quality objectives were achieved for carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide at all EPA monitoring stations in Victoria.

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Publications

• For full details of Victoria's air quality in 2004, download EPA Publication 1000 – Victoria's Air Quality – 2004 (Adobe PDF file, 221KB)

• For the 2004 air quality data tables, download Victoria's Air Quality 2004 – Air Monitoring Data Tables (Adobe PDF file, 108KB)

• For an assessment against the National Environment Protection (Ambient Air Quality) NEPM, download EPA Publication 1001.1 – Air Monitoring Report, 2004 – Compliance with the National Environment Protection (Ambient Air Quality) Measure (Adobe PDF file, 662KB)

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