Tēnā koutou,

Welcome to the latest Mount Maunganui air quality update, providing the latest news and reporting from Toi Moana Bay of Plenty Regional Council. 

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

A spike of 122µg/m³ was recorded at the Rata Street monitor on 14 December 2023 and is thought to have been caused by heavy machinery operating directly upwind of the monitor. The business operating upwind of the monitor was notified about the spike and a water cart was deployed, quickly bringing down the level of PM₁₀ detected by this monitor.  

Whilst year-on-year the number of PM₁₀ breaches recorded has been reducing, we have yet to record a year since the airshed was gazetted with no breaches.

Pollution Hotline

From 1 August 2023 to 31 January 2024, we received 59 calls through to the Pollution Hotline that related to air quality within the Mount Maunganui Airshed. Of these, 71% related to odour, 17% to dust and 12% to smoke.  

Note that 38% of the odour complaints received during this period related to a single event whereby an animal feed product (dried distiller’s grain) in a bulk storage shed started to smoulder and discharged an acrid burnt smell. The investigation resulted in two abatement notices and two infringement notices being issued, and the animal feed was subsequently removed from the storage facility.

Odour and pro-active monitoring

Council continues to carry out regular checks at odour hot spots. This work is building a profile of odour types and sources throughout the Mount Maunganui Airshed, establishing trends and enabling us to prioritise focus areas. To date, we’ve not discovered any non-compliance.  

Air Quality Working Party

The final Air Quality Working Party hui for 2023 was held on Wednesday 15 November 2023 where the independent Chair, Graeme Marshall, was farewelled. Over 30 representatives from Whareroa Marae, Clear the Air, Priority One, Tauranga City Council, Toi Moana Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Toi Te Ora, Western Bay of Plenty District Health Board, Ministry for the Environment, various Mount industries and Waka Kotahi were present.

Port of Tauranga Chief Executive, Leonard Sampson, presented an update on the New Zealand and Port of Tauranga export market and their work to improve the resilience of the upper North Island supply chain. Leonard outlined the ports current efforts to reduce their environmental impact, highlighting improvements they have made to bulk solid handling activities and their kaimoana restoration programme. He also outlined some of the initiatives they have in place to reduce their carbon footprint, for example the Terminal Automation Project, involving a move towards electric straddle cranes. 

Regional Council Science Team Leader, Shane Iremonger, presented the Ambient Air Quality Data Update, focusing on the chapters for Mount Maunganui. There is now six years of data for some of the sites (2018-2023) that can be analysed from the Mount Maunganui industrial air monitoring network, with an even longer record from some locations such as Whareroa Marae (2016). The over-all trends have shown a downward detection in levels of PM₁₀, PM_2.5 and SO₂ across the network, however, also show that H₂S is regularly detected at levels above the New Zealand Ambient Air Quality Guideline value (based on odour nuisance) at Whareroa Marae. 

Jenny Simpson from Tonkin + Taylor was invited to give an independent perspective on air quality issues in Mount Maunganui and actions in place to address these issues. Jenny’s presentation reflected on the narrow scope of regulation there is to work with and how the WHO guidelines are not necessarily relevant to an industrial airshed, but rather better suited to where people live.

Regional Council General Manager of Regulatory Services, Reuben Fraser, presented on actions undertaken by both regional and city councils on what they are doing to improve air quality in the short, medium and long-term. He also gave an update on the implications of the interim court decision on Plan Change 13 (Air Plan).

The final presentation was by David Phizacklea of Tauranga City Council around the Mount Industrial Planning Study, a project looking at the future of this industrial area over the next 30 years. He shared some of the broad actions that have emerged from stakeholder workshops around transitioning from polluting industries to greener industry within the Mount Airshed. These actions factor in the rights of existing industry to operate and aim to provide better transport connections, enhance the landscape amenity of the area, and create buffer zones to better separate industrial and residential areas.

Moving forward, members of the working party have been invited to a workshop to help set goals for 2024. The workshop will focus on the purpose of the group, where the group wants to get too, what the group can do to achieve these targets and realistic timeframes. 

New monitors on Ranch Road and Totara St  

The new air quality monitors being installed on Ranch Road and Totara Street are almost up and running. The Ranch Road site will be the only reference grade monitor to sit outside the designated airshed, with the other monitors located near industrial activities within the airshed. The residential air sensors provide an indication of air quality in real-time, giving those interested an important local insight.

New monitoring at Whareroa 

The upgraded Whareroa monitor has been installed, which means this site now checks for TSP, PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 particulates and SO₂, TRS and NOx gaseous contaminants.  

Plan Change 13 - third interim decision received 

After a four-year journey through the Environment Court, Regional Council is now able to implement stricter air quality rules in the Mount Maunganui industrial area. The stronger rules are focused on addressing issues with fine dust (PM₁₀), from the handling of logs and bulk solid materials (such as palm kernel).

The Environment Court began processing appeals to Plan Change 13 (PC 13) in 2020, allowing time for more monitoring to take place and data to be gathered. Fast forward four years, and the Court has released three interim decisions that resolve the appeals and provide some clear direction to all stakeholders to better control these dusty activities.

Any operator within the Mount Maunganui Airshed that is handling logs or bulk solid materials will need to obtain a resource consent in the next three years. The easiest way to do this is to first ensure compliance with the Interim Permitted Activity Rule (IPAR), as set out in the third interim decision. There are some complicated requirements and tight timeframes in these new rules. Operators should get in touch with Regional Council Team Leader Kaiwhakatinana, Karen Parcell, to discuss the implications.

You can view the decision here.

Unsealed Yards and Policy 12

As part of Plan Change 13 (PC13), the Environment Court has directed Regional Council to control dust from unsealed sites in the Mount Maunganui Airshed (MMA) through a Section 293 process – essentially a small variation to the existing PC 13 plan change. In response, we have drafted new policies and rules that aim to improve air quality by better managing emissions from unsealed sites. As per the court’s direction, towards the end of 2023 we reached out to affected parties about these proposed rules and held a number of information sessions.  

As part of this court direction, Regional Council was also instructed to include a new policy (Policy 12) in PC13 which manages activities which discharge PM₁₀ within the MMA by using an iterative management approach. Towards the end of 2023 we held a number of drop-in sessions for the public about this proposed policy. 

We are now formally seeking submissions on these proposals. We have limited notified the proposed rules for Unsealed Yards, and publicly notified Policy 12. Those affected by proposed rules for Unsealed Yards have been contacted directly. You can learn more about Policy 12 and how to make a submission here.

Port of Tauranga

The Environment Court has issued an Interim Decision in relation to the Port of Tauranga Stella Passage proposal. In this interim decision the Court has granted consent for Stage 1 of the Sulphur Point wharf extension (within the already consented area of dredging), subject to certain matters being addressed to the Court’s satisfaction. Consent has not been granted for the Mount wharf extension at this stage. You can view the decision here. 

Higgins and Allied Asphalt

The hearing for the Higgins air discharge consent application, held on 6 and 7 November 2023, was adjourned for further stack modelling and updates to the proposed conditions. The Commissioners closed the hearing 18 December 2023 and issued their final decision on 23 January 2024. Consent has been granted for a 3-year term, subject to a suite of conditions. The potential effects were decided to be acceptable for a short term, subject to the stack height being raised to 28m within a six-month time period. During the hearing Higgins proposed to decommission the current plant and install a new plant that meets current best practice in the long term.

Allied have applied for direct referral to the Environment Court for their air discharge consent application. The Environment Court have set the hearing for 8 to 10 days between 13 – 24 May 2024.

Genera

Genera was granted a ten-year consent to discharge fumigants (methyl bromide, phosphine and Ethanedinitrile (EDN)) to air on 5 October 2023. This was subsequently appealed on 27 October 2023 by Clear the Air Trust and Tauranga Fumigant Action Group. KiwiRail Holding have joined the appeal under s274 RMA. The parties have agreed to Court Assisted Mediation, scheduled for 28 February 2024. 

Please note, this is a separate application to the region-wide consent which was granted on 16 February 2024. 

Lawter

Forty-nine submissions were received for the Lawter air discharge consent application. A hearing date is yet to be scheduled.

Mount Industrial Work Programme and Council Reporting 

The Mount Maunganui Industrial Programme reports to the Monitoring and Operations Committee meeting. The latest update (item 8.4) can be accessed here. 

The update covers

• report updates
• monitoring
• pollution hotline updates
• enforcement
• consents.

The next Monitoring and Operations Committee meeting is being held on Tuesday 5 March.