More monitoring at Exide
By Chrys Ayley
Greater Wellington Regional Council is undertaking another round of community-based monitoring to measure lead and arsenic in air levels surrounding the Exide Technology battery recycling plant in Waione Street, Petone. Last year the results of a similar study revealed that lead levels were lower than those measured in 1999 but the factory was closed on several occasions during the monitoring period rendering the results inconclusive. The Exide factory already conducts ?dust fall? air sampling on its plant boundary as a condition of its resource consent. The GWRC monitoring started in the first week of March and is due to run until the end of June, with results expected to be released much later in the year. The study will measure dust fall and ambient air monitoring at Waione Street and Kirkcaldy Street. The monitoring stations are metal boxes on stands with the dust fall data collected every month and the ambient air monitoring data collected every 24 hours, every second day. The measurement system is a standard method so that results can be compared with other locations. GWRC environmental regulation team leader Miranda Robinson says the community monitoring beyond the Exide site differs from the plant boundary monitoring that Exide currently undertakes. ?We are measuring average daily outdoor air quality in the community that can be use to assess human exposures to lead whereas Exide are measuring average weekly levels of fugitive emissions at their site boundary that are used to assess compliance with their resource consent limits. Separate monitoring of stack emissions takes place and the new survey purely measures ?other emissions? such as doorways, vents and general dust accumulation, Ms Robinson said. ?Exide has assured us that this year there are no planned shutdowns during the monitoring period,? Ms Robinson said. Exide?s consent is up for renewal in 2011 and the information will be important for assessing any risks to community health.
