TO MAKE ENRON’S ACCOUNTANTS LOOK HONEST.

Aucklanders are puzzled.

The ARC tells us Auckland’s air is polluted – filthier than the air of London, New York, and Hong Kong.

Many of us don’t believe it. How come the ARC’s figures are so contrary to common sense?

The answer is simple. They cooked the books.

Their big lie has persuaded others including the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.

A graph in his latest report (Creating our future: Sustainable Development for New Zealand)

shows Auckland’s levels of carbon monoxide from motor vehicles, from 1992 to 1998, significantly exceed the international guidelines.

The commentary below the graph explains:

“In Auckland, CO concentrations are higher than in London and other larger cities.”

The graph is sourced from a paper by G W Fischer of the National Institute of Water and Atmosphere (NIWA).

However, on the first page Mr Fischer explains that:

“The data are also only peak values. That is, the numbers represent the highest value found anywhere in the City, at any time of year..” (My emphasis)

You might like to read that again.

In reality, the median value for levels of carbon monoxide over the whole five year period are only about seven percent of the international guidelines.

And this average is from the most polluted site in the region.

Fischer’s paper concludes:

“New Zealand is still a very clean place, especially in comparison to other countries.”

Yet the ARC insists that Auckland is more polluted than London.

What’s going on?

When someone compares “Auckland” with “London” we first have to ask “What is Auckland?” and “What is London?”.

After all, if you tell me “Manhattan Island has a higher residential density than Los Angeles City” you will be right.

But if you then tell me “New York Metropolitan Region has a higher density than Greater Los Angeles” you will be wrong.

Los Angeles is a very high density region.

So what “Auckland” is the ARC measuring? Wellsford? Pukekohe? Piha?

They are drawing on three highly polluted monitoring sites; at Queen Street, Khyber Pass, and some short term readings in Dominion Road.

ARC’s Queen Street monitor used to be sited in the middle of a Queen Street block, near Tysdalls sports store.

But a few years ago they moved it across the road, close to traffic lights at Wyndham St.

The peak readings naturally increased and sure enough the ARC tells us that carbon monoxide in “Auckland” is increasing.

These peaks occur from 11pm to 3am on Fridays and Saturdays, when there are few people around.

What causes the high readings?

First, Queen Street runs down a gully which is further contained by a canyon of high buildings. Auckland’s nights are comparatively calm.

And the midnight hours are when the boy racers come out to play.

So if Mayor Banks gets the boy racers out of Queen Street, Queen Street’s air pollution problems will probably disappear with them.

The other dirty site is in in Khyber Pass. NIWA’s office is on the corner of Mountain Road and their sampling pipe hangs out the window,

sucking up air from the traffic lights. You can see the pipe as you drive by. (see illustration)

A couple of London’s many monitoring sites appear to carry similar traffic levels to Queen Street and Khyber Pass.

Sure enough, the highest level of Nitrogen dioxide (the other major exhaust pollutant) at Camden peak at 207µg/m³ which is lower than at Khyber pass, which peaks at 277µg/m³. On the other hand the level at Tower Hamlets (294µg/m³) is higher than at Khyber pass (277µg/m³).

The average levels at both London sites (Camden – 71µg/m³ and Tower Hamlets – 74µg/m³) are higher than at Khyber Pass at only 58µg/m³.

The recommended ambient guideline for NO₂ is way up there at 200µg/m^3. So our average reading of 58µg/m³ at Khyber Pass suggests most Aucklanders have little to worry about – except the integrity of their bureaucrats.

At the congested monitoring sites in London, traffic is mostly idling, or moving slowly, there are no nearby traffic lights, and these London sites are flat.

When the traffic lights at the Khyber Pass site turn green, the traffic has to accelerate and climb uphill, which increases the load on the engine and produces more pollution – right below NIWA’s intake pipe.

It’s not surprising that this monitoring site records such high levels of exhaust pollution.

It’s a con.

Why do these analysts in the ARC want us to believe that Auckland is one of the most polluted cities in the world?

Why are they telling potential tourists that Auckland is filthier than London, New York and Hong Kong?

Who knows what ends drive their means. We do know that the ARC will soon be owners and operators of a train system

and they need as many passengers as possible. One way to increase patronage is to increase the cost of driving a motor car.

The ARC coyly calls it “Travel Demand Management”.

“Shafting the Competition” is more like it.

In a recent briefing paper to the ARC, Mr Kevin Rolfe, Air Quality Management Specialist, recommends that the way to “solve” this

non-existent crisis is to introduce a series of reforms, which include:

Restricting the age of imported vehicles.

Making cleaner fuels.

Providing remote CO sensing sites at roadsides.

Running a refit programme.

Legislating accelerated vehicle retirement.

Funding a diesel engine rebuild programme.

These are hugely expensive programmes. Can Auckland really afford to spend hundreds of millions of dollars solving a non existent problem?

Why should a working mother in South Auckland suffer higher motoring costs because of Queen Street’s boy racers?

Why not do what other responsible regulators do and generate a daily exposure related “air pollution index”

so that drivers can avoid the most polluted parts of town.?

That would empower motorists rather than punish them – which is why it’s not on the list.

NIWA wrote the Ministry of Transport report which claimed, with astonishing precision,

that air pollution is causing 399 premature deaths in New Zealand per year.

Their own measurements tell them their office is sitting on top of one of the most polluted sites in Auckland.

So why do they keep working there?

Do they have so little faith in their own work?

Or do they know something we don’t?