Atmosphere
Page 96
Atmosphere
Air Quality
Introduction
The City of Port Adelaide Enfield has a solid industrial and commercial base,
with 950 industrial sites and 2781 commercial activities (including the retail
sector) currently in operation. The City is undergoing significant redevelopment
in a number of areas that will increase both the industrial and residential areas
of the City.
The quality of ambient air throughout the North West region has been an
ongoing concern for many years, as reflected in epidemiological data showing
higher incidence of respiratory illness, and in negative community perceptions
(Gooding, Riordan 2004).
The Lefevre Peninsula community and all other parts of the Council area are
likely to be particularly sensitive to the effects of exposure to dust or other
particulate pollution due to the generally poorer pre-existing respiratory and
circulatory health status of the population. (Ref SA Government’s Social Health
Atlas and Council’s Environmental Health Research Report regarding the
health profile of the Council area – available on Council’s website).
The SA Department of Health undertook an air quality study at Lefevre
Peninsula Primary School in 2008, in response to concerns over the potential
mobility of the dust from the stockpiled excavated soil from the adjacent
Newport Quays development site. The study indicated that the most vulnerable
population exposed to the dust are children who attended the school (SA Health
Department, 2008).
This is an example of the challenge for State and Local Governments in relation
to air quality, and in managing the interface between residential and
industrial/commercial uses of land (including the transport sector) so as to
ensure that impacts on health and living conditions are prevented or minimised.
Emissions from motor vehicles are the largest single source of air pollution in
the City (NPI, 2008). Reliance on technology and improvements to fuel
standards to maintain air quality tend to take precedence over facilitating
behavioural or policy change. Despite the State Government’s recent large
investment in public transport, including proposed new light rail infrastructure to
Port Adelaide, the motor vehicle is likely to remain the dominating choice for
commuter transport in the foreseeable future. The projected increased volumes
of heavy transport and freight vehicles on the area’s roads due to the transport
of resources from the north of the State to the Port of Adelaide at Outer Harbour
will result in further increased transport-related air emissions along the current
and proposed freight transport routes.
