A preliminary assessment of the contribution of industrial emission sources to exceedences of air quality objectives in England and Wales

Abstract

The Environment Act 1995 introduced the concept of Local Air Quality Management in Great Britain. Local authorities are under a statutory duty to undertake a scientific review and assessment of local air quality, Where any of the air quality objectives (AQOS) specified in Regulations are predicted to be exceeded by relevant target dates, a local authority must designate certain locations as Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) and develop an air quality action plan setting out their plans to achieve the national AQOS. This paper examines a set of local authorities declaring and proposing AQMAs (n=l21 authorities) to identify which exceedences of objectives are due to industial emissions in England and Wales. The methodology employed is an examination of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Review and Assessment Archive and Progress Database. The database is used to identify the location, pollutants and AQO exceedences that require AQMAs. Data from the database and archive is then used to identify the extent to which an industial source(s) is a cause of exceedence in a local authority area. Relationship between such cases and Zones of Industrial Pollution Sources (ZIPS), defined by the Environment Agency (England and Wales), are investigated,