Council Moving on Air Quality

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council is moving ahead with its Healthy Homes funding scheme to help homeowners replace old wood burners, but meanwhile has made a submission to a review of the national air quality standards.

SUBMISSION TO AIR QUALITY REVIEW

A technical advisory group has been appointed by the Minister for the Environment, Nick Smith, to review the National Environment Standard for Ambient Air Quality – specifically small particles referred to as PM10.

This review is focused on three matters - the permitted number of annual PM10 exceedances, the target timeline for compliance (currently 2013), and compliance matters, including the penalty of not granting resource consents to industry in non-compliant airsheds after 2013.

“The Council has concerns about the current NES requirements and the ability of Hawke’s Bay to meet them, so our submission to the technical advisory group details these concerns and we hope we will see some satisfactory changes,” said Chairman Alan Dick.

The Council submitted that allowing only one exceedance of the limit (under the current regulations) is unrealistic and unreasonable. A previous draft proposal was for 5 exceedances a year which Council believes is more workable. The difficulty with only one exceedance a year is that the air quality standards do not distinguish between human and natural sources of PM10. In Napier, Whirinaki and Awatoto a high proportion of sea salt would be registered on the monitoring equipment, and would be responsible for a number of exceedances during the year.

The Council also submitted that the timeline target of 2013 was unrealistic and has asked for a target of 2020. Manufacturers would be unable to produce the estimated 17,200 replacement compliant burners for Hawke’s Bay, and there would not be enough installers. Short of banning woodburners outright, which would become a significant health issue if it could be enforced, it is unlikely the standards could be met in Hawke’s Bay by 2013.

Affordability is also a major concern for the Regional Council. Approximately 33% of households in the affected area earn less than $30,000 a year and the cost of replacing these is a burden. Wood burners provide cheap and efficient heating for these people.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has included in their submission a timeline of the actions that it has taken to research and respond to the National Environmental Standards. This has included researching the extent of airshed areas affected by air pollution, investigating the sources of air pollution, and setting up the Healthy Homes funding scheme.

HEALTHY HOMES PROGRAMME FOR HAWKE’S BAY

The Council has been setting up the funding scheme in association with the government agency EECA (the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority) and with financial institutions.

“A memorandum of understanding is being drawn up with EECA with the aim of having the Regional Council’s funding scheme work alongside it. EECA is already approving service providers who will process applications for grants and do the installation work. There are five other Councils in New Zealand going through the same process with EECA, so it’s a good opportunity to be taking the lead to get it right for consumers,” said Chairman Alan Dick.

A Healthy Homes programme manager has been appointed at the Regional Council. Megan Rose is now developing the implementation of the Council’s Healthy Homes funding scheme and is working with EECA, local installers and the public to upgrade home heating and insulation.