Welcome to your first edition of the Mount Industrial Community e-newsletter. No images? Click here September 2020Welcome to your first edition of the Mount Industrial Community e-newsletter. This will be a quarterly initiative and it intends to provide relevant updates, so please let us know by replying to this email if there is anything you would like included in the next edition. Bay of Plenty Regional Council is committed to improving air quality in the Mount Maunganui industrial area, and understands how important this is to the community. There are several organisations who need to be involved in the conversations and decision making, and Regional Council is working hard to collaborate with all parties. Read on for a summary of the following matters:
Six months breach freeSeptember marks six months without any breaches of the National Environmental Standards (NES) for air quality at any of our 11 air quality monitors. This is positive as the Mount Airshed was gazetted as ‘polluted’ when created in November 2019. The polluted airshed status has implications for business development and consent conditions. To achieve a non-polluted status, there must be no NES breaches over a five-year consecutive period. While there is always more to be done to improve air quality, this takes us one step closer to achieving a key goal for cleaner air. Investigation of a managed retreatWork has begun to scope the potential for a managed retreat of industries in the area surrounding Whareroa Marae. Last month, Councillors from Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Tauranga City Council met and discussed the current situation at Whareroa Marae and the Mount Industrial area, in response to the community’s health and wellbeing concerns. Councillors agreed to take constructive, collaborative action and the Regional Council has also committed to investigating and addressing health concerns raised by the Whareroa community. We are only at the beginning of scoping this study in conjunction with Tauranga City Council and Whareroa Marae but will be sharing more information as soon as we have more clarity on the process ahead. Please check our website for the latest information. New dust monitor installed at Blake ParkAn air quality monitoring station was installed in the Blake Park hockey fields this month, in response to community concerns over dust levels in this sporting arena. This initiative is a win for sports players and spectators who have told us they are disappointed with the amount of dust present on occasion at the popular park. The station will be used as an indicator to monitor dust particulate levels that the community is being exposed to and provide some valuable information to support our commitment to improving air quality in the Mount Maunganui area. Councillor tour of the air quality monitorsFollowing the Monitoring and Operations Council Committee meeting on 15 September, Bay of Plenty Regional Councillors had a tour across the Mount Industrial area air quality monitors. This gave them a feel for the location of the monitors, the issues and pollutants being monitored at each location and enabled a better gauge of both community and industrial concerns. The Councillors were pleased to see the monitors first-hand and how the annual $500,000 investment in air monitoring looks on the ground. Methyl bromide hearing updateMethyl bromide is used as a fumigant to kill unwanted pests associated with the movement of goods internationally, particularly logs. The community have expressed concern about how it used for some time. The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) hosted a hearing last month on the recapture of methyl bromide and is now carrying out further air dispersion modelling as a result. Once the modelling is peer reviewed, the approximately 70 submitters will have another opportunity to provide comment on the additional information. Key themes in the hearing included the EPA deadline timeframe and definition of recapture for industry groups. For more information on the hearing, please visit the EPA website or view our methyl bromide FAQs online. Ziwi Limited submitted a resource consent application to Regional Council to continue their business operations over a 20-year term at their Mount Maunganui site. Regional Council commissioned a technical review of the application, which was undertaken by an external air quality expert and have requested further information from Ziwi. Ziwi has requested that their application be publicly notified, so the community will have an opportunity to make a submission in due course. Notification will be in the local newspapers, on our website and Facebook page. Anyone currently affected by Ziwi odours should continue to advise the 24/7 Pollution Hotline by calling 0800 884 883, we will investigate all perceived breaches of the Regional Air Plan. Pollution HotlineProtecting our environment from pollution is a top priority for Regional Council. We look after the Pollution Hotline, 0800 884 883, a 24/7 service to receive calls regarding pollution related incidents relating to discharges to the land, water and air across the region. We are your environmental first responders so encourage you to report any issues with as much detail and as soon as possible. Calls are completely confidential. Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Click subscribe to receive the next edition straight to your inbox. |