Air Pollution and
Conservation Areas
Simon Bareham
Countryside Council for Wales
Welsh Air Quality Forum
14 September 2005
Outline
• Nature conservation legislation and policy
• Key air pollution issues affecting nature
conservation
– Changing threats
– Key sources
• Air Pollution legislative framework
– National policy
– Assessment of impacts on protected sites
• Looking ahead
The role of CCW
• The Countryside Council is the
Government's statutory adviser on
sustaining natural beauty, wildlife and the
opportunity for outdoor enjoyment in
Wales and its inshore waters.
• CCW is a statutory consultee under
planning law and PPC
UK air pollution advice
• CCW works with the other country
conservation agencies through a JNCC
network to:– Provide advice to Government and others
– Develop air pollution policy; influence
partners
– Manage and prioritise air pollution
research
Nature conservation in Wales
Legislative and policy framework
• Habitats Directive (and Regulations)
• Wildlife and Countryside Act
– Countryside and Rights of Way (CROW) Act
• Wales Biodiversity Action Plan
Protected sites in Wales
Nationally important sites
• >1000 SSSIs
• >13% of land cover
European sites in Wales
• 90 SACs
• 20 SPAs
But don’t forget biodiversity
in the wider countryside!
Habitats Regulations
Site protection provisions:• For ‘plans and projects’ Competent Authorities
must:– assess likely significant effect, ‘alone and/or in
combination’
– undertake appropriate assessment
– consult the statutory conservation agencies
• Only authorise if can demonstrate no adverse
effect on integrity (subject to over-riding
public interest)
• Also CROW Act – new provisions for SSSIs
Key air pollution issues
• Trends and threats
• Assessing impacts on nature conservation
Historical perspective - Acid Rain
• Freshwater systems acidified –
widespread damage reported in
1980’s
• Sulphur was the main concern
• Importance of long range
transport of pollutants from
power stations
• International protocols to reduce
emissions
Changing air pollution climate
- the good news
•
Large reductions in emissions of
pollutants from industry and road
transport
– Sulphur dioxide 80% reduction
– Nitrogen oxides 40% reduction
•
•
•
Cleaner air in urban and
industrial areas
Recovery of some freshwaters
Government committed to further
reductions of emissions
Changing air pollution climate
- the bad news
• Only a small decrease in pollutants deposited in upland
and western areas
• Large areas of semi-natural ecosystems remain at risk
from acid deposition and nutrient nitrogen
• Diffuse, ‘non-regulated’ sources are increasingly
important - especially ammonia from agriculture
• Peak O3 concentrations declining, BUT increasing
mean levels
• Current measures in place will not provide adequate
protection to sites (Gothenburg Protocol, NECD)
Focus on nitrogen
• NOy and NHx => N deposition
– nutrient enrichment and effects on biodiversity
– acidification
– nitrogen leaching
• NHx dominant component of total N
deposition in UK
• Nitrogen pollutants are increasingly the
dominant component of acid deposition (cf
sulphur)
• NOx impacts close to roads, urban areas
Focus on ozone
Clean air in the Welsh Mountains?
Ozone
• Reduced peak concentrations of ozone
• But, increasing mean concentrations
• => could have significant effects on upland
vegetation
Nutrient N and Acidity CL exceedance
Nutrient N
Hall et al. 2004
Acidity
Are we seeing effects?
• Acidification of freshwaters – chemical
recovery but slower biological recovery
– Future role of nitrogen?
• Evidence from
CS2000; New Plant
Atlas; lichen records
• What impact is
ozone having?
Implications for protected sites
• Effects of acidity over long timescales, changes
may already have occurred
• High deposition of nitrogen to large numbers of
sites
– Risk to attaining favourable status
• Implications of increasing mean concentrations of
ozone?
• Climate change - interactions and implications?
• Diffuse sources more difficult to tackle
• Better understanding of the impacts on site
condition and long term integrity is essential
– Improved, targeted surveillance programme
recommended
So what’s being done about it?
• National/International
– NECD; CLRTAP
– Air Quality Strategy
– Sulphur from shipping
• Site Assessment
– IPPC/LAPPC
– Planning
– Assessments under the Habitats
Regulations and CROW
Air Quality Strategy
• Air Quality Strategy National Objectives
– NOx annual mean 30 µg/m3
– SO2 annual mean 20 µg/m3
• Objectives do not apply in ‘exclusion
zones’
– <20 km from agglomeration
– 5 km from motorways, built-up areas and
industrial Part A process
Location of SSSIs in
southwest England and
Wales with 1998 NOx
concentrations
Location of SSSIs in
southeast England
with 1998 NOx
concentrations
AQS Review 2005
• CCW/JNCC advise
– Removal of exclusion concept – for sensitive
protected sites
– More holistic consideration of ecosystem
protection
• Inclusion of ammonia
• Inclusion of deposition effects (i.e. using critical
loads)
Site assessment
IPPC/Habitats Regulations
• New PPC applications (inc. applications from
‘existing’ processes) are a ‘plan or project’
– includes Part A(2); Part B
• Habitats Regulations also requires review of all
existing permits/authorisations includes:
– IPC/LAPC Part A and B
• So the ‘tests’ are applied to all regulated
process/installations
IPPC/Habitats Regulations
• Major assessment of air emissions from
industry and intensive agriculture
• Risk assessment approach
– Staged application of Habitats Regulations
– Relevant?
– Likely significant effect?
• Alone or in combination?
– Appropriate assessment?
1. Emissions
7. Decision
6. Site Sensitivity
2. Dispersion modelling
= process contribution
The
Assessment
Basics
3. Background
concentrations
4. Exposure or PEC
5. Source attribution
1%
1%
11%
2%
2%
3%
3%
4%
6%
24%
43%
Looking ahead
• Current policy measures not enough
– Greater and more targeted emissions
reductions required
– Action on diffuse sources – national policy
and local spatial solutions
– Ammonia
– Road transport
Summary
• Large improvements in air quality
– But, still have large areas of Wales/UK
receiving unacceptably high deposition
• National policy measures must address
ecosystem impacts more holistically
• New legislation and new obligations for
planning and pollution control
– effects based approach
• Monitoring network proposed
Where to find help: Examples of Guidance
1) EA/CCW/EN joint guidance for IPC/IPPC and Habitats Regulations
2) Defra guidance for LAPPC
www.defra.gov.uk/environment/airquality/lapc/aqnotes/pdf/aq17(03).pdf
3) Highways Agency guidance – supplement to DMRB