Existing burners exempt for now

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has confirmed that the new air quality rules do not have immediate effect for landowners who had a solid fuel burner in place at the time the new rules were notified.

‘There is a section in the Resource Management Act (s20A) which is designed to give interim protection to existing activities until proposed new rules have been through the formal consultation process, “ says Murray Buchanan, Group Manager Environmental Management.

“This means that if you have a solid fuel burner that was in place on 9 December 2008 and you sell your property, the new owner can continue to use that burner until the rules are operative.
This section of the Act also applies to the emission limit rules. People can replace existing burners with NES compliant burners at the 1.5 limit in the meantime as a permitted activity.

Mr Buchanan does note that the proposed rules do have effect for the installation of new burners where a burner was not previously in place, such as for a new house.
If house owners have any questions about the effect of the new rules on their existing burners, they are encouraged to ring the Council for further advice.

In the meantime, the Council has scheduled a meeting at 9.00am on Tuesday 3 February 2009 to discuss this issue.