With a population of 101 686 in 2016, Ballarat is a growing regional city with generally good air quality. Residents complain of smoke and dust issues from time to time.

Complaints handling process

The City of Ballarat receives approximately 100 000 customer service calls every year, but very few of these relate to poor air quality. In the 14 years to 10 October 2017, the council received 252 complaints about smoke and/or dust.

Air quality complaints fall into two categories:

For the period 2010 to 2016, EPA reported that NEPM AAQ air quality standards were met for carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide. Reported figures show that concentration levels for these indicator pollutants remain well below set standards.

We have consulted with EPA, DELWP, City of Ballarat and Brimbank City Council, and we considered their views when reaching our audit conclusions. As required by section 16(3) of the Audit Act 1994, we gave a draft copy of this report, or relevant extracts, to those agencies and asked for their submissions and comments. We also provided a copy of the report to the Department of Premier and Cabinet.

Responsibility for the accuracy, fairness and balance of those comments rests solely with the agency head.

Responses were received as follows:

In this part, we examine EPA's regulation of air pollution sources, including whether and how it identifies pollution sources, as well as how it uses its regulatory tools to manage air discharge from industrial operators.

4.1 Conclusion

EPA's regulation of air pollution sources has recently begun to improve. It has achieved this through better embedding its risk-based approach into its licensing requirements and developing programs to enhance its compliance efforts—for example, through major industry assessments and APS audits.

In this part of the report, we examine EPA's reporting on the information it obtains from its ambient air quality monitoring stations.

3.1 Conclusion

EPA's annual air quality monitoring reports state that Victoria's ambient air quality is generally good and within national standards. However, EPA's limited air monitoring coverage does not provide information on air quality for most of the state, including many parts of metropolitan Melbourne.

The NEPM AAQ requires each state and territory to monitor, assess and report on concentrations of seven air pollutants, including ozone, PM2.5 and PM10, in accordance with a specified protocol. The protocol requires that each jurisdiction:

Clean air is important for health and wellbeing, and is an issue of community concern. WHO reports that statistically significant evidence supports the correlation between poor air quality and negative health impacts.

Clean air is important for health and wellbeing, and is an issue of community concern. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that statistically significant evidence supports the correlation between poor air quality and negative health impacts.

The air we breathe primarily contains nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water vapour and various inert gases. It also contains pollutant components, such as ozone and particulate matter (PM), which arise from human and natural processes and can affect human health.

Figure B1 lists the entities included in this report. It details the date an audit opinion was issued to each entity for their 2016–17 financial report and performance statement and the nature of that opinion.

Figure B1
Audit opinions issued to the local government sector for 2016–17