A combination of cold weather, planned agricultural burns and increased use of wood heaters has been blamed for the poor air quality in the region over the last week.
Environment Protection Authority chief environmental scientist Andrea Hinwood said EPA historic air quality data tables indicated numerous occasions when overall air quality throughout the Latrobe Valley had been “poor” and at times “very poor”.
The tables showed instances of high levels of particulate matter 2.5 particles, which is fine particulate matter, and reduced visibility.
“This is absolutely [due to] specific conditions,” Dr Hinwood said.
“This has been impacting us all over the state, the Melbourne metro area as well as in the south-west of the state.
“There are a lot of planned burns in the agricultural sector and because it is cooler, people have been lighting up wood heaters, and all of that combined means you have increased particles in the atmosphere.”
Dr Hinwood said power stations and industry were not necessarily to blame for the poorer air quality across the state.
“We always see it in the colder months particularly when you get these temperature inversions,” she said.
“With lots of planned burns and the wood heaters, we’ve got more sources [of emitters] than we’d normally have.
It comes after the EPA extended a review into Victorian power station licences for the public to make submissions.
Environmental Justice Australian lawyer Bronya Lipski acknowledged that while the poorer air quality than usual could be attributed to specific conditions, some of the particulate matter could be attributed to the power stations and levels could be reduced with newer pollution reduction technologies.
“I think that by the time you are adding the planned burn pollution and increased wood heater [use] with existing issues with PM 2.5 levels in the Valley, you have a pretty high exposure level,” she said.
“EPA has made some way in improving access to data, making an hourly table available historically.”
Ms Lipski commended the EPA for opening up the licence review to invite community submissions, as previously, only select parties had been invited to make a submission.
“The whole process has been pushed back. I don’t think it is necessarily a bad thing, because it gives the rest of the community an opportunity to have their say on what the power station licence should be amended to include,” she said.
“The more people that can have their say the better.”
To make a submission to the power station licence review, visit engage.vic.gov.au/review-brown-coal-power-station-licences or to view the EPA’s air quality data tables for the region visit epa.vic.gov.au/our-work/monitoring-the-environment/epa-airwatch/historic-air-quality-data-table.
