AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT: INPUT SOUGHT ON PROPOSED NEW HIGHVELD PRIORITY AREA PLAN

AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT: INPUT SOUGHT ON PROPOSED NEW HIGHVELD PRIORITY AREA PLAN

• 29 July 2024
• Environmental Law
• SA Legal Academy

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries & the Environment has called for input by 28 August 2024 on a draft second generation air quality management plan for the Highveld priority area. Building on progress with implementing a first generation plan in place since 2012, the draft revised plan ‘incorporates improved monitoring and evaluation mechanisms’ – along with measures intended to strengthen compliance and enforcement. The Highveld was declared a high priority area in 2007.

Among other things, the draft plan proposes ‘targeted strategies’ for effective air quality management by:

• persons conducting listed activities
• persons operating controlled emitters
• the holders of prospecting, exploration, mining and production rights or permits issued under the Mineral & Petroleum Resources Development Act, 2002
• persons conducting reclamation activities, and
• certain national, provincial and local government officials.

As an annexure to the draft plan, a baseline assessment report ‘provides a comprehensive analysis of the current state of air quality in the Highveld priority area’ based on:

• historical air pollution trends from 2007 to 2020
• information on atmospheric omission sources from 2019, and
• ‘air dispersion modelling outcomes’ that informed the development of emission reduction targets proposed in the draft plan.

Unfortunately, the annexure was not included in the Government Gazette notice concerned. At the time of writing, the South African Air Quality Information System website on which the annexure was apparently also published was offline.

• draft second generation plan
• 2012 plan

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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