''If smoke is obnoxious beyond the boundary, then it is considered that it would be an offence.''
Mr Donaldson said that under the air plan, the council had an obligation to investigate a burn-off, just as it did domestic fires and backyard burning.
A council staff member was on the scene on Tuesday photographing and smelling the smoke, he said.
''That information is being sent to Dunedin for myself and my senior staff to look at and decide what we do further.''
The staff member was a ''warranted officer'' so was an expert witness for the purposes of the Resource Management Act, Mr Donaldson said.
The council had issued infringement notices and taken prosecutions over burn-offs in the past where smoke was considered ''offensive and obnoxious'' beyond the boundary.
The same rules that applied to couch fires in Dunedin applied to burn-offs in Central Otago, he said.
A spokesman for the fire authority said yesterday it was not planning to take any further action.
During the fire, Hillend manager Mike Scurr told the ODT a lack of wind caused smoke to accumulate, but the burn-off was well controlled and had gone to plan.
Upper Clutha Vegetation Control Group chairman Alan Kane considered bad luck had played a part in the smoke issue.
''It looked to be heading in the right direction when he lit it and it seemed to stop and almost be a southerly drift, which couldn't have been worse from Wanaka's point of view.''
His group was set up to improve understanding of burn-offs and to ''encourage farmers to use other methods wherever practical so as to phase out the necessity to burn''.
''I think that trend is happening. There is less and less burning taking place.''
He understood Hillend station was engaged in a long-term development plan that would ''substantially reduce or eliminate the need'' for burning.
Mr Kane declined to predict how long it would be before burn-offs in Otago ceased entirely.
In reference to Mr Morgan's apology, one of the most vocal critics of the burn-off, Jo Gumpatzes, of Wanaka, said it was ''nice that he's acknowledged there should have been an apology''.
Ms Gumpatzes said she understood the reasons for burn-offs but questioned whether farming mountains was a ''viable proposition''.
''For the sake of the few sheep they do run up there, is it worth it?''
The burn was advertised publicly ahead of time and was to clear dead wilding pines and sprayed bracken fern and to reduce summer fire risk.
The Queenstown Lakes Deputy Mayor, Lyal Cocks, said with the town being both an urban and rural centre issues could sometimes arise.
"It works both ways, but we've got to try and live together. It is sometimes considered a bit of conflict there, but we're working our way through it."
Wanaka resident Jo Gumpatzes described it as appalling.
"Can you imagine being a tourist coming to town today to look at the mountains, to look at the view, and you can't even see them?" she said.
"It doesn't do anything for Wanaka as a brand, it doesn't do anything for New Zealand ... it's just appalling."
Lake Wanaka Tourism general manager James Helmore said he understood farmers needed to burn off and he was aware they were trying to move away from the practice.
However, it was "disappointing" to see such a widespread burn-off.
