Bay of Plenty Regional Council tightens Mount Maunganui air quality rules

Air quality rules will be tightened in the Mount Maunganui industrial area. Photo / Andrew Warner

Tighter air quality rules to control dusty activities in Mount Maunganui’s industrial area can now be implemented after a four-year court journey, Bay of Plenty Regional Council says.

The new rules are focused on addressing issues with fine dust and those affected will now need resource consent, the council said in a statement.

Council general manager of strategy and science Namouta Poutasi said this decision was the hard line they had been looking for.

“This is good news for the community as it means sometimes dusty activities like transporting bulk solid material and log handling will now be controlled through the resource consent process.

“Those wanting to carry out these activities will now need to show how they will manage any negative effect on air quality,” she said.

The Environment Court began processing appeals in 2020, allowing time for monitoring and data to be gathered.

The statement said the court had now released three interim decisions that overrule these appeals and provide clear direction to stakeholders to better control dusty activities in the Mount Maunganui industrial area.

It said the court also recognised that unsealed sites were now the largest unmanaged source of fine dust within the area.

“We know unsealed yards contribute to overall dust issues, so in line with this court direction we’ve developed additional rules that require these bigger yards (bigger than 400m2) to be sealed,” Poutasi said.

“Of the more than 600 sites in the Mount Maunganui industrial area, we expect around 120 landowners will be impacted by this directive from the court. We are in touch with these landowners about opportunities to [give] feedback.”