I am sure we would all be happy to breathe the sort of air one finds in remote forests. Obviously, that is not a realistic expectation in the areas where most Australians live which are major cities. On the other hand, we also don't want to breathe air that is so polluted that it makes us sick, no matter where we live.
To balance this, the state and federal governments, have jointly produced the national air quality standard. The official name of this standard is the "National Environment Protection (Ambient Air Quality) Measure".
The standard has the following tables:
Table 1: Standards for Pollutants
| Column 1 Item |
Column 2 Pollutant |
Column 3 Averaging Period |
Column 4 Maximum concentration standard |
Column 5 Maximum allowable exceedances |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carbon Monoxide | 8 hours | 9.0 ppm | 1 day a year |
| 2 | Nitrogen Dioxide | 1 hour 1 year |
0.12ppm 0.03ppm |
1 day a year None |
| 3 | Photochemical oxidants (as ozone) | 1 hour 4 hours |
0.10 ppm 0.08 ppm |
1 day a year 1 day a year |
| 4 | Sulfur dioxide | 1 hour 1 day 1 year |
0.20 ppm 0.08 ppm 0.02ppm |
1 day a year 1 day a year None |
| 5 | Lead | 1 year | 50 μg/m3 | None |
| 6 | Particles as PM10 | 1 day 1 year |
50 μg/m3 25 μg/m3 |
None None |
| 7 | Particles as PM2.5 | 1 day 1 year |
25 μg/m3 8 μg/m3 |
None None |
Table 2: Goal for Particles as PM2.5 by 2025
| Column 1 Pollutant |
Column 2 Averaging period |
Column 3 Maximum concentration |
Particles as PM2.5 | 1 day 1 year |
20 μg/m3 by 2025 7 μg/m3 by 2025 |
|---|---|---|
The standard records that it "was made under secion 20 of the National Environment Protection Council Act 1994 (Cwlth), National Environment Protection Council (New South Wales) Act 1995 (NSW), National Environment Protection Council (Victoria) Act 1995 (Vic), National Environment Protection Council (Queensland) Act 1994 (Qld), National Environment Protection Council (Western Australia) Act 1996 (WA), National Environment Protection Council (South Australia) Act 1995 (SA), National Environment Protection Council (Tasmania) Act 1995 (Tas), National Environment Protection Council Act 1994 (ACT) and the National Environment Protection Council (Northern Territory) Act 1994 (NT)"
The National Environment Protection Council (New South Wales) Act 1995 (NSW) records this in section 20 (1):
"The Council may vary or revoke any national environment protection measure."
It is therefore clear that the air quality targets in the approval conditions are backed by legislation.