Arrowtown 2019 – Update for May 2019

The start of any CONA project is always frantic. May is always an exciting time as we launch each Community Observation Networks for Air initiative, and this fifth season, in the pretty but polluted South Island town of Arrowtown, has been no exception.

Spatial variation of smoke in Arrowtown

As I write from the relative calm of early June I can report we have 23 outdoor PM sensors (ODINs) and 10 new indoor PM sensors (HauHaus) in place around the town, with more ready to roll out.

And not a moment too soon. According to www.lawa.org.nz the ‘official’ air quality monitor in Arrowtown has already recorded 4 exceedences of the National Environmental Standard (PM10 over 50 micrograms per cubic metre as a daily average), and a peak hourly concentration of 195 on 22nd May. 

PM10 and air temperature data for the month of May 2019 from www.lawa.org.nz

Ironically that was the day before the Cosy Homes Trust hosted its Warm Homes Show in Arrowtown. Around 55 people attended this 'one-stop shop' with 10 stallholders providing information on clean heat appliances and good practice. Since 25th May it briefly turned warm again keeping concentrations down, but as we turned into June winter has come with a vengeance - but that's for a future blog post.

The project was officially launched on 9^th May when I gave a public talk at the Atheneum Hall in the town, organized by the Arrowtown Village Association. We had advertised the talk fairly widely in the locality, including at the last two Farmers Markets in April (thanks to Jordana from Cosy Homes Trust). But to be honest, we had no ideas how many would turn up. It was heartening to see perhaps 50 – 60 people curious enough to come out on a drizzly night to find our what we’re up to. Not only were they happy to hear me talk for 40 minutes (an annotated version of my powerpoint can be found here: https://www.niwa.co.nz/atmosphere/research-projects/air-quality-issues-in-new-zealand-towns) , but the Q&A went on for nearly another 40. Whereas people seemed supportive of the research there was a notable frustration from some on the lack of progress or attention from the regulator – Otago Regional Council. Our unofficial project committee (made up of folks from NIWA, ORC, Cosy Homes and Public Health South) discussed that at length the next morning and we sent a clear message back to ORC that this community wants action.

However, we were also delighted that over 20 householders signed up to host indoor air quality monitors – called HauHaus - and many were able to take them home from the meeting. The monitors were so brand new that we had literally only received them the previous day and had not had time to test them. That was a calculated risk on my part and – hey! You win some you lose some! The monitors soon had to be recalled to fix a design flaw that meant the USB socket would easily fall off. Anyway, that’s fixed now and 10 have been returned to homes, with another 16 to be deployed soon. These new monitors are designed to make this kind of monitoring much easier for householders and researchers alike and will be the subject of a separate blog post in the near future.

HauHaus - built by Massey University

We also planned to launch the project at Arrowtown School on the same day as the town meeting, but a crucial member of our team – Ayushi – got a bad case of the early-winter-bug. Once recovered we re-scheduled for the following week and on 16^th May we had the most fun taking over year 8 for the morning (you can see Ayushi’s blog about the day here, and a report from the local press here). Thanks to the fantastic enthusiasm of teacher Kelly Scholes we are now working with a selected group of year 8s who spend each Tuesday afternoon learning how to analyse and present air quality data. They are currently practicing on old data from previous projects, and on ORC’s data, getting ready to get their hands on Arrowtown data.

The international CONA team: Ayushi (India), Ian (UK) and Francisco (Chile) at Arrowtown School

The data they’ll be analysing will come not just from the HauHaus but from the ODIN network. 23 ODINs were deployed on the last week in May, 13 on power poles, 8 outside selected HauHau-hosting homes, and 2 at the school. The ODIN locations have been chosen to be as close to a regular grid as we can currently get, and more will be added to fill the gaps soon.

So that was May!

Through June we will be checking the performance of the monitors, getting our first look at the data, and (if all is well) adding more monitors, and homes, to the network. Our Arrowtown School helpers will be creating some charts and we hope to do another public meeting before school term finishes on 5th July.

Ian