Dungannon and Moy are air pollution hotspots

Mid Ulster Council chairman, has expressed concerns in relation to persistent air quality issues in Dungannon and Moy.

Speaking at a recent Development Committee meeting of the local authority, the Sinn Féin representative for Dungannon DEA said he was alarmed to read in the annual air quality report that Newell Road in Dungannon and Charlemont Street in Moy continue to exceed air quality objectives regarding nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) pollutants.

Cllr Molloy stated, “This report comes around each year and we’re faced with the same two sites that are over the limits that are recognised, and they’re quite high.

“There have been ongoing meetings with a number of statutory bodies, which has been welcomed, to try to alleviate the issue, but as we progress we can keep those meetings going to keep the issue on the agenda, to try to get a long-term resolution.”

Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) provides the framework within which air quality is managed by Northern Ireland’s local authorities.

The LAQM process places an obligation on all local authorities to regularly review and assess air quality in their areas, and to determine whether air quality objectives are likely to be achieved.

In the Local Authorities report annually on air quality within their districts via progress reports. Air quality objectives for four of seven identified pollutants are comfortably met within the district.

Monitoring took place over a number of years regarding the three remaining pollutants, namely nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), sulphur dioxide (SO₂) and PM10.

That prolonged monitoring exercise showed all the areas chosen were well within the air quality objectives and were extremely unlikely to exceed the objectives in the future.  As a result, monitoring was discontinued for these two pollutants.

The only remaining pollutant that is routinely monitored in the Mid Ulster District is nitrogen dioxide. Monitoring for NO₂ takes place along the roads that are more heavily congested throughout the District.

Congestion generally occurs along the main North-South transport route. The roads in question link the three main towns of Magherafelt, Cookstown and Dungannon.

Two of the smaller villages this traffic passes through are also monitoring sites, namely Moneymore and Moy. The chosen sites tend to be located close to residential dwellings, at points where the traffic is slowing down or idling at busy junctions or traffic lights.

In April 2023 the number of diffusion tube monitoring locations across the district was expanded. The new monitoring sites are located at Moy; Newell Road, Dungannon; Circular Road, Dungannon; and Coalisland.

There were previously five AQMAs declared for NO₂ within the Mid Ulster District Council area, two of which have already been revoked due to improvements in the air quality at those locations.

Ongoing monitoring has however shown continued exceedances of the air quality objective for NO₂ at two of the remaining AQMAs.

Diffusion Tube monitoring at locations within the AQMAs in Dungannon and Moy have demonstrated there are two sites where NO₂ levels continue to exceed the objective limit of 40ug/m³, namely Newell Road, Dungannon, and Charlemont Street in Moy.