Northland family taking council to Environment Court over dusty road

A family is to take Kaipara District Council to the Environment Court over a dusty road they say is aggravating their children's asthma and forcing them to keep their windows closed during summer.

The Reids say they've had enough of talking, they want action from their local council on their dusty road. Otherwise they're going to the Environment Court.

In the summer months the Reids say they can't even open the windows of their home or it will fill with dust as trucks roll by - and they've had enough.

After battling the council for 10 years for a solution, they've decided to take the Kaipara District Council to the Environment Court over their "inability to mitigate the dust problem", Tony Reid said.

"I'll do it for my health, for my family's health and so as I can utilise my land 100 per cent rather than 30 per cent."

However, the Kaipara District Council said the dust nuisance posed on their road is at the low end of the dust risk spectrum.

A statement issued by a spokesman said: "Tangowahine Valley Rd has a dust score of 11 (low end of medium dust risk), and there are other roads in the district with a greater dust risk therefore higher priority to seal, and is checked and maintained regularly by our roading engineers."

Reid, who lives on an unsealed section of Tangowahine Valley Rd, said the KDC needs to take the matter more seriously - it's their legal obligation, and he cites new research that shows dusty roads are killing people.

A recent study found dust from unsealed roads is killing an estimated one Northlander every two years and costing the health sector nearly $3 million annually.

"It's absolutely noxious to the point that it's mentally stressful when you are living in an environment where you can't open up your windows, you cannot hang your washing out. The animals don't chew grass out properly and I can't even do my job as a car painter,'' Reid said.

Furthermore he said it's impacted his children's quality of life, "as they battle asthma triggered by the dusty road".

"I brought it to the council's attention that both of my kids are asthmatic and have a medical note stating that dust exacerbates this condition, so they're in this environment and yet the council doesn't give a damn about my kids or my wife. They've given us no choice, but to take it to the Environment Court," he said.

Reid disputes the KDC's claim that the road is not that bad, saying the test conducted by the Northland Regional Council was done when the weather was wet and the wind was blowing in the opposite direction of the meter, "so it isn't accurate at all".

He provided a letter from the NRC which substantiated his claims.

Reid said he believed the KDC is in breach of the Health Act 1956 - which he says requires them to mitigate dust nuisances.

The NRC was contacted and asked if they could retest the road the Reids live on.

A spokesman said: "Resource scientist - air, natural resources science Obi Khanal could do further testing over the approaching summer."

A Kaipara District Council spokesman said: "Depending on the results of the test we would look at the overall position of the score against all the other roads we have in the district, and see what changes that creates in the priority of work."