December 2022
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Tēnā koutou,
Welcome to the December update, providing the latest news and reporting from Bay of Plenty Regional Council's programme monitoring air quality in the Mount area.
PM10 exceedances
Two PM10 exceedances were detected at the Rata Street monitoring site in August. An application to the Ministry for the Environment has been successful for exceptional circumstances dispensation as the council investigation into these exceedances show that very heavy sea fog and high airborne natural salt was responsible for the levels of PM10 detected.
There remains one confirmed PM10 National Environmental Standards (NES) exceedance for 2022 detected in April at the Harbour Bridge Marina monitoring site (one breach of the NES is permitted in a 12 month period and five years of no breaches is required to be free of polluted airshed status).
Service requests from the public
Pollution Hotline calls
There have been 44 calls received by our 24/7 hotline during this reporting period in relation to activities within the Mount industrial area. The majority (39) of these related to air quality, in particular odour and five related to water and land, such as discharge.
Report It online
There have been four notifications through the online tool where people report odours.
Air Quality Working Party
The last quarterly meeting was well attended on Tuesday 22 November.
Ministry for the Environment staff presented on the planned legislative changes to replace the current RMA, specifically giving some clarity around how the National Planning Framework will be introduced under the Natural and Built Environments Act (NBA).
Waka Kotahi presented on the various options being considered to make
moving around key Mount Maunganui roads more straightforward and streamlined, and the group were updated on The Wednesday Challenge, running since March to get commuters trying alternative ways of moving around the city each Wednesday.
The Working Party will reconvene before March 2023.
Industrial Auditing Programme
In the first half of 2022 Regional and City Council staff visited 200+ businesses in the Mount Industrial area to check on potential pollution issues and discharges to air, land and water.
No major pollution issues were detected during the audits with the main issues being washing business and fleet vehicles where wash water could run into the stormwater network, some sites burning rubbish in a 44 gallon drum (outdoor burning is no longer permitted in urban areas); lack of appropriate spill kits in some workshops, and increasing opportunities for recycling rather than landfilling wastes. Every business which had issues to resolve has now provided evidence that they have taken action to improve their business practices.
This programme is run every two to three years, beginning 12 years ago. There has been a vast improvement in not only business compliance but also operator attitude to doing the right thing.
We extend our appreciation to Mount Maunganui businesses for working with Council staff to address any issues that were identified.
New residential monitors
The first three of new Clarity air monitors were deployed in the Mount Maunganui residential area in November. They are low-cost, real-time indicators of particulate matter and nitrogen oxide levels.
These are supplementary to Bay of Plenty Regional Council's reference grade network monitoring and a further nine are expected to be added in 2023.
More to come on this next year.
New measures in place at Port
Port of Tauranga has installed 640m of additional wind break fences as part of its dust reduction programme to a total of 1.4km, pictured above.
Wharf sweeping has increased. During peak operational hours there can be anything from two to five vacuum sweeper trucks working at the Port, dependent on what activities are being undertaken at the time. The sweeper trucks are used to vacuum up dusty materials, the large majority of which are re-used for various purposes including as landscaping supplies.
The Port has improved cargo handling procedures to minimise fine dust becoming airborne from on-wharf activities, including bulk cargo handling and log yard activities.
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For more information on Mount Maunganui industrial air quality, please visit boprc.govt.nz/mountindustrial