Cockburn Area Air Monitoring Plan
The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) continues to respond to complaints relating to dust and odours impacting the suburbs of Munster, Beeliar and Yangebup in the City of Cockburn.
To further investigate, we ran the Cockburn Area Air Monitoring Plan from February to mid-May this year. The aim of this Plan was to help us identify where dust and odours are coming from, contributing weather conditions, who is being impacted and to what extent. The results from the dust and odour programs will be published as soon as possible later this year. The four Programs below were carried out under this Plan.
Community Odour and Dust Monitoring Program
We established a group of community volunteers from the area in the map below, to report odour or dust impacts when they experienced or witnessed.
We wish to thank the 69 volunteers who logged their last reports in mid-May for the program, which received more than 330 reports.
To finalise the program, DWER is holding three information sessions for volunteers on 4, 5 and 6 June 2019 – where we will present the data that was provided during the program.
The department is now analysing and interpreting this data.
The program will help us build a picture of the current state of odour and dust in the area – assisting us to identify impacts, possible sources and the role local weather conditions are playing.
- Click here to view FAQs on this Program
DWER Odour Patrol Program
Departmental officers patrolled the area to identify any odour impacts and their sources. DWER performed 28 patrols spanning 50 hours.
Odour patrol officers were, on numerous occasions, able to correlate their findings with reports from the Community Odour and Dust Monitoring Program’s volunteers.
Data from odour patrols will be analysed in conjunction with data from the Community Odour and Dust Monitoring Program and other additional information, to provide robust interpretations about the status of odour sources and identified odour impacts in this area.
- Click here to view FAQs on this Program
Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and Dust Monitoring Program
DWER installed a LiDAR unit and several particle monitors designed to assess the origin and pathway of airborne dust. As per DWER’s previous LiDAR programs at Cape Lambert, Port Hedland and Mandogalup, the LiDAR and particle monitor recordings were live-streamed on the department’s website during the program.
DWER Dust Sampling Program
The dust sampling program involved placing eight dust deposition plates at specific locations in the area including several background sites to collect dust for analysis. The main aim was to assist in the determination of sources of dust in the area. These plates were sampled daily during the program and selected samples were analysed. This data will assist in determining dust sources in the area and validating the dust monitoring data – in order to provide information on the types of dust being deposited.
- Click here to view FAQs on this program