National Pollution Inventory (NPI) launched on the Internet

28/1/00
Federal, State and Territory Governments today launched an Internet based National Pollution Inventory (NPI) detailing pollution around the country.
Environment Minister Cheryl Edwardes welcomed the NPI and said that Western Australians would be able to access details about pollution emissions throughout Australia at the click of a button.
"The NPI will allow Internet users to locate information about emissions in their area, as well as find out what actions are being taken to reduce emissions," she said.
Mrs Edwardes said that in addition to industry emissions the NPI would include estimated emissions from domestic, commercial and small industrial activities for the Perth Airshed and Swan Canning water catchment.
"This will feature information on motor vehicle emissions and nutrient run-off from domestic and other sources."
Mrs Edwardes said the NPI provided a mechanism for obtaining information on all emissions to airsheds and watersheds. This would be of value for the management of these environmental systems.
"In addition to monitoring diffuse pollution, the NPI requires facilities that exceed threshold emission limits on any of 36 specified pollutants to provide annual reports. Eventually information on 90 pollutants will be included on the database,"
she said.
Nationally, 1200 facilities have reported to the NPI. In Western Australia 197 facilities from sectors including mining, alumina production, electricity supply, brewing, brickworks, oil and gas and fuel supply have reported.
The site provides links to similar databases in other countries, including USA, Britain and Canada.
Last year the State Government successfully ran a trial of the database for the Kalgoorlie area.
The web address for the NPI is http://www.npi.ea.gov.au
Media contact: Carole Cowling on 9421 7707