Tēnā koutou,

Welcome to the latest Mount Maunganui air quality update, providing news and reporting from Toi Moana Bay of Plenty Regional Council as well as other agencies working to manage industrial activities and air quality concerns in the Mount Maunganui area.

If you have feedback, ideas or topics you would like to see covered in future editions of this newsletter, please let us know by replying to this email. 

Fine dust – PM₁₀

Above: Graph showing the number of exceedances of the 24-hour limit of the NESAQ for PM₁₀ detected in the Mount Maunganui Airshed since the monitoring programme was expanded across the industrial area. *Monitoring started in November 2018 in Year 1.   

Between July 1 and September 30, 2024, two abatement notices were issued to businesses operating within the Airshed, requiring them to stop offensive and objectionable dust discharges beyond their property boundaries. Both notices relate to the same incident, which we were alerted to through our monitoring system.  

As part of the Environment Court decision on Plan Change 13, released in February this year, Regional Council has received a number of Dust Management Plans from businesses impacted by Rule AQ R22A. Business impacted by this rule had to engage an air quality expert to prepare a Dust Management Plan on their behalf, and install monitoring. These Plans had to be submitted to Regional Council by 12 August 2024, and seven were received as part of this process. Some Plans are ‘umbrella plans’ for multiple business and/or sites, and Compliance are following up a final further two.

Pollution Hotline

We received 78 notifications through the Pollution Hotline and Report it tool regarding air quality issues in the Mount Maunganui Airshed for the period 1 July to 30 September 2024. Of these, 62 were in relation to odour issues and 33 of those reported bitumen or asphalt type odours. One abatement notice was issued during 1 July – 30 September 2024, to cease offensive and objectionable ‘fishy’ odour discharges.

Please note, the number of calls and notifications the Regional Council receives about air quality concerns does not necessarily reflect actual air quality. 

We continue to proactively monitor odour from the asphalt plants located within the Mount Maunganui Airshed, when the plant(s) are operating and wind conditions indicate an odour might reach residential areas. To date, staff have identified some short duration and low intensity odours on occasion, but there have been no confirmed resource consent breaches.

Consent update 

Resource consents are a critical tool for protecting air quality and are one of the main levers the Regional Council has to manage air quality issues. There are currently a number of air quality related consents being processed in the Mount industrial area and we have provided a short update on these below.

Port of Tauranga

In a decision dated December 2023, the Environment Court granted consent for Stage 1 of the Sulphur Point wharf extension (within the already consented area of dredging), subject to certain matters being addressed, including scoping a Southern Te Awanui Harbour Health Plan, a management structure for meaningful kaitiaki relationships, kaimoana surveys at Te Paritaha, a state of the environment report and developing visual simulations relating to landscape effects on Whareroa. The reports were due at the end of September and the determination of consent for Stage 1 is still before the Court for a decision. No further dates have been set for reconvening the hearing for Stage 2 of the Sulphur Point extension or the proposed Mount wharf extension.

Genera

An Environment Court Hearing is set to proceed on 4 November 2024.

Allied Asphalt

The Environment Court has released its decision on the Allied Asphalt bitumen plant consent application (Wednesday 9 October), approving the application for both the existing and proposed new plant. The consent for the new plant has been authorised for 22 years and except for the term (Allied requested a term of 35 years) the overall terms are generally consistent with Allied’s proposal, supported by both councils subject to conditions. The consent for the existing plant has been authorised for a maximum of two years.

As per the Courts requirements, the Regional Council has since coordinated with the other parties, including iwi, and submitted a revised set of comprehensive conditions. We are now awaiting a final decision. If accepted, the official resource consents will be granted.

Lawter

The hearing date for the Lawter consent application has been postponed from September 2024 to 2025 (date to be confirmed), to include concurrent consideration of an application under the National Environmental Standards for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Industrial Process Heat.

Two key documents for Mount industrial area launched

Update on Plan Change 13

The first interim Environment Court decision on Plan Change 13 directed Regional Council to draft new policies and rules that:

• control dust from unsealed yards in the Mount Maunganui Airshed 
• manage activities which discharge PM₁₀ and other particulates in the Mount Maunganui Airshed to improve air quality, health, and amenity outcomes for the area (Policy 12).

We consulted on the proposed Unsealed Yards and Policy 12 policies from January to April earlier this year. The Unsealed yards policies were limited notified to identified affected parties and seven submission were received. Policy 12, relating to the iterative management of air quality in the Mount Maunganui Airshed, was open to public submissions and 11 submissions were received.  

These submissions, along with Council's assessments, were sent to the Environment Court, and a hearing was held mid-October, with the Court’s decision to follow.

We will continue to update you on this process. 

Mount Air Quality Working Party

The Mount Air Quality Working Party held their first meeting with new Chair, Paul Cooney, on Thursday 10 October. The group includes representatives from Whareroa Marae, Clear the Air community group, Tauranga Moana Fumigation Action Group, Priority One, Toi Te Ora Public Health, Western Bay of Plenty District Health Board, Ministry for the Environment, Waka Kotahi, Toi Moana Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Tauranga City Council and various Mount Maunganui industries. This was the first meeting for new Tauranga City Council Mayor Mahe Drysdale and Councillor Rod Taylor. 

The notes from this meeting are yet to be distributed to those who attended so will be shared in the next newsletter.

Update of the Mount Maunganui Airshed monitoring map

The Regional Council contracts an independent provider to monitor air quality across 9 sites and we also manage 12 air sensors, primarily in the residential area. Each monitor checks for different pollutants, depending on what activities are taking place nearby. The data helps us understand air quality in the area and address community concerns.

This monitoring comes at a significant cost at around $500,000 per annum, so every 12 months we review this contract to ensure it is achieving what we want it to. As part of this process, we analyse the results and review what we monitor and where. We check that it is still relevant and required, while taking into account industry changes, updated information and new reports, and what other monitoring is taking place.

The below map shows the location of our air quality monitors and sensors, including what they are checking for. We now check benzene at 20 new and existing sites in the Mount Maunganui Airshed using a passive sampling method. Benzene was identified as a contaminant of concern in the Toi Te Ora health report, which highlighted the lack of long-term monitoring as a significant data gap.

You can view the results from the air monitors here and air sensors here.

Above: Map of air quality monitors and indicators across Mount Maunganui, as well as what pollutants they are checking for. Click to enlarge.

Te Whatu Ora health risk assessment 

In July 2023 Te Whatu Ora (now Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora) released a health risk assessment that calculated the impacts of air pollution in the Mount Maunganui community.

Both councils commissioned a review of the report to understand the extent to which the findings within the report can be relied upon for future decision making to support policy changes and any areas that might require further research or assessment. This review confirmed information previously received by Tauranga City Council and Bay of Plenty Regional Council, which has resulted in programmes of work to improve air quality being instigated.

Industrial Pollution Prevention Auditing programme

From mid-November to the end of January, the Regional Council will be running its Industrial Pollution Prevention Auditing programme in the Mount Maunganui industrial area. During this time, staff will visit industrial sites to check compliance and provide guidance.

This year, we will focus on bulk solid material handling and storage, unsealed sites, and industrial process heat, in addition to our usual checks on emissions to air, land, and water.

These visits are primarily educational, helping business owners understand their obligations under national and regional rules and encouraging cleaner, more efficient operations with minimal environmental impact. 

Our air 2024

Unlike particulate matter, there is no 24 hour national standard for SO₂ in New Zealand, only a guideline, and we are waiting for the Govt to provide direction on this. Against the 24-hour World Health Organization guideline (40 µg/m3), two sites in Mount Maunganui exceeded this limit over the three years. Over this period, this occurred once at Tauranga Bridge Marina and three times at Whareroa Marae.

We will continue to monitor SO₂ levels in the area and compare them to the 1 hour NZ national standards and relevant WHO guidelines to identify any trends.

Read the report. The StatNZ figures which help inform Our air 2024 can be found here.

Latest Monitoring and Operations report

The Mount Maunganui Industrial Programme reports to the Monitoring and Operations Committee meeting. The last Committee meeting was held on Tuesday 3 September and the agenda can be found here. The next Committee meeting is being held Tuesday 12 November.