Tēnā koutou,

Welcome to the latest Mount Maunganui air quality update, providing 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

Each of these breaches were localised (only detected at a single monitoring location) and our alarm system meant we had a compliance officer on site to investigate the cause of each breach. The exceedances detected were all able to be attributed to specific activities being undertaken in close proximity to specific monitors (a forklift operating for an extended period on unsealed ground and a boat's hull being sanded next to a monitor), so the breaches were not symptomatic of a widespread pollution event across the Airshed. The Mount Maunganui Airshed will remain ‘polluted’ until the PM₁₀ standard is not breached more than once per year for five consecutive years.

While 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.

*Comprehensive monitoring of PM10 across the Mount Maunganui Airshed started in November 2018.  

Pollution Hotline

We continue to receive calls to the Pollution Hotline and notifications to Report-it about air quality issues in the Mount Maunganui area, primarily around odour. The majority of the reports received during the three-month period from 1 April – 30 June were about odour (44 of the 49), with a ‘bitumen' type odour referenced in almost half (18) of the reports.

We now have a protocol in place with bitumen manufacturers where the Regional Council is notified when a plant is starting up. Staff will then assess conditions and, if it’s likely odour could reach the residential areas, staff will proactively visit that area to conduct odour assessments and determine compliance with consents. This means we will be pre-empting complaints to the hotline, however it is still important that those calls are made.

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

Odour and pro-active monitoring

For the past 12 months, the Regional Council has been actively monitoring odours at various sites within the Mount Maunganui Airshed and beyond. This daily assessment helped us understand when and where odours were most prevalent.

Odour complaints are the most common calls to the Pollution Hotline, with callers often sharing health concerns they have around associated chemicals odours. Our proactive monitoring aimed to identify the times of day and specific locations where certain odours were strongest. This helped staff create an odour profile linked to industrial activities in the area. 

Common sources of complaints include:

• bitumen manufacturing
• fibreglass coating
• food and cooking oil manufacturing
• stockfood storage and transportation (especially palm kernel, tapioca, and molasses)
• sulphur dioxide discharges
• fuel storage facilities
• commercial coffee roasting.

After a year of extensive monitoring, we found no evidence to warrant enforcement action against any site. Consequently, we have decided to discontinue the broad pro-active monitoring approach and instead focus our efforts on bitumen manufacturing, a specific industry of concern. This targeted approach will allow us to address odour issues more effectively and ensure a healthier environment for our community.

Weather and wind patterns heavily influence how an odour is spread. During this time of year, cold inversion layers can trap odours close to the ground, making them more noticeable. We ask all businesses, whether they have permitted or consented discharges, to be extra vigilant about the impact of their odours on the community in the coming months.

Air Quality Working Party

The Mount Air Quality Working Party held a workshop hui in March to determine the future of the group and how they can be most effective. 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.

The workshop set out to determine whether the Working Party was:

• having an impact on improving air quality within the Mount Maunganui Airshed
• worthwhile continuing
• review the Terms of Reference (to ensure the goals were fit for purpose going forward)
• to allow the group to make decisions on actions needed to be implemented.

The general consensus was that that the group achieves some impact and there was unanimous consensus to keep the group operating.

The Regional Council is currently looking to appoint a new independent chairperson to lead the Air Quality Working Party into the future.

A further hui was held in June, and this was the last for the Tauranga City Council commissioners who will be replaced by elected representatives moving forward.

You can access a copy of the notes from this hui here.  

Increasing the number of pollutants we monitor for 

The Regional Council contracts an independent provider to monitor air quality across nine 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 to 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.

As a result of our latest review, starting from 1 July 2024, we have begun monitoring 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.

Below: Map of new Benzene monitors. 

Plan Change 13 - Unsealed Yards and Policy 12 update

The Environment Court has directed the Regional Council to control dust from unsealed sites in the Mount Maunganui Airshed and better manage activities which discharge to air by using an iterative management approach. In response, we have drafted new policies and rules that aim to improve air quality, health and amenity outcomes and we recently called for feedback. Submissions closed on 30 April. 

• Draft policies looking to address dust from unsealed yards were notified to affected parties, as per the Environment Court direction, and seven submissions were received.
• A draft policy proposing an iterative management approach to air quality in the Mount Maunganui Airshed was publicly notified and received 11 submissions. 

These submissions have been assessed and will be sent to the Environment Court for it to make a decision at a hearing, likely to be held later this year.

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 to the Court’s satisfaction. These conditions include 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. A six-month deadline was proposed for some of this work, but the Port of Tauranga have asked for this to be extended until end of September. The Environment Court is yet to confirm. Stage 1 was identified by Port of Tauranga as the most urgent constraint on capacity. 

Consent has not been granted for Stage 2 of the Sulphur Point extension and the Court envisages a reconvened hearing on this matter once the further information relating to this part of the proposal is available.

Consent has also not been granted for the Mount wharf extension at this stage.  This is based on an interim finding that adverse cultural cumulative effects on Whareroa Marae have not been adequately addressed.  A reconvened hearing is envisaged once this issue has been addressed.

Genera

The consent granted to Genera for the discharge fumigants (methyl bromide, phosphine and Ethanedinitrile (EDN)) to air was appealed on 27 October 2023 by Clear the Air Trust and Tauranga Fumigant Action Group. Court assisted mediation between the parties took place on 28 February 2024 and a judicial conference was held with Judge Kirkpatrick on 23 April 2024. The Judge agreed to allow time for the appellants to engage experts to review the application and proposed conditions.

A second conference was held on 26 June 2024 with Judge Smith, who has taken over the case. Convening an expert witness conference was agreed for the week of 29 July 2024. The Environment Court Hearing date is set for the week of 4 November 2024.

Allied Asphalt

Allied Asphalt have applied for a new consent for their site in the Mount industrial area. The proposal is to install a new plant which is proposed to reduce emissions. The application was for a direct referral to the Environment Court and the Environment Count hearing was held on 13 – 17 May 2024. A decision is pending.

Lawter

A hearing date has been set for the Lawter consent for the week starting 9 September 2024.

Higgins resource consent compliance

Higgins was granted resource consent for a three-year term earlier this year, subject to a suite of conditions. As part of this consent, Higgins was required to establish a Community Liaison Group. So far two meetings have been held where it has provided an update on progress with consent conditions. 

The consent to increase the stack height to 28m was also approved and has been installed. 

The requirements are that anyone using fossil fuels for production heat must have an emission reduction plan and apply for a resource consent. Council is tasked with assessing and certifying the emission reduction plan and ensuring compliance with the ERP through conditions of consent.

This will impact a number of businesses within the Mount Maunganui Airshed.

Nationally, process heat makes up 33% of our overall energy use and contributes approximately 8% of gross emissions. More than half of process heat is supplied using fossil fuels. Learn more here.

Clear the Air community meeting

Clear the Air hosted a community meeting at Mount Intermediate on 19 June 2024. Representatives from Clear the Air, Toi te Ora, Regional Council, City Council and Whareroa Marae shared presentations. You can view these presentations on Clear the Air’s Facebook page here.

A number of follow up questions were also received and you can read these, as well as answers by both councils and Toi te Ora, here.

Mount Industrial Work Programme and Council Reporting 

The Mount Maunganui Industrial Programme reports to the Monitoring and Operations Committee meeting. The last Monitoring and Operations Committee meeting was held on Wednesday 12 June and the agenda can be found here.

We would like to hear from you. If you have ideas for inclusions in future newsletters, please get in touch via return email.