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Refreshing our approach to air quality in Otago
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ORC is refreshing its approach to managing air quality. While Otago has made progress in improving air quality in recent years, our science shows we need to rethink how we carry out air-related activities.
The Regional Plan: Air is due for review, so this is a good time to also refresh our wider air strategy, which includes the Plan and other actions aimed at improving air quality.
We anticipate this new Otago Air Regional Plan to be notified in June 2025.
Through our monitoring and research, we have a very good understanding of what is affecting air quality and what could be done about it.
Read more about these areas of concern and possible improvements further below.
The Resource Management Act 1991 requires regional councils to manage air quality. In Otago, ORC needs to ensure air quality standards are met while also ensuring overall air quality is well managed. Good air is important for the health of Otago’s people and communities. We desire clean air both for ourselves and generations after.
We carry out science, monitoring and compliance activities and sets rules for air quality. An air quality monitoring network focuses on areas with poor air quality and areas that require improvement. We have a Regional Plan: Air that sets out rules for managing air quality for a range of activities. We also have compliance and enforcement staff responding to air quality issues across Otago, and science and communications staff advising us how and where we need to make a difference.
You can learn more by visiting our Air care page.
To improve air quality, we need to consider a range of aspects; such as why people make heating choices, how to target support, and how we communicate and coordinate new or improved practices.
O Te Pū Hau — the surrounding air and atmosphere — supports all things. In Kāi Tahu traditions, air and atmosphere emerged through traditions. Following the separation of Raki and Papatūānuku, one of their many children, Tāwhirimātea, fled with Raki into the sky and took control of wind and weather.
Air and atmosphere are taoka — treasured resources provided by the gods to sustain life. They are integral parts of the environment that must be valued, used with respect, and passed on intact to the next generation.
Air and atmospheric pollution harms and degrades the mauri of this taoka, of te taiao — the environment — and of other taoka such as plants and animals. Poor air quality damages and degrades ancestral lands, mahika kai sites, and other sites such as rock art, adversely affecting the mauri of the landscape and the mana of the people.
Kaitiakitaka — guardianship of te taiao — requires Papatipu Rūnaka to be actively engaged in air quality management, to ensure Kāi Tahu values are recognised and provided for.
Our health and the environment need clean air. A HAPINZ study attributed over 3,300 premature deaths per year to air pollution in Aotearoa New Zealand. That’s more than melanoma, diabetes, colon cancer, and road accidents combined. Sadly, some Otago towns rank among the worst in the country for air pollution.
The National Environmental Standards for Air Quality 2004 (NESAQ) set the limits on pollution for the protection of human health. These are based on guidelines that were set by the World Health Organization (WHO), which have been updated recently with new research and understanding. Some areas of Otago are not meeting the current NESAQ guidelines.
The key source of air pollution in Otago – in all of New Zealand – is home heating. Air quality is especially poor in parts of Otago because of the unique climate and landscape.
In places like Alexandra and Arrowtown, smoke gets trapped in winter inversion layers rather than blowing away. While scientific evidence points strongly towards this negatively affecting people’s respiratory health, we also know reliable heating is vital, especially during winter. Electric heating sources like heat pumps need to have a reliable power supply to be suitable replacements, and some heat pumps don’t work well in low temperatures. There's no simple answer – not one that’s safe and quickly achievable at least.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though! Otago’s air has been improving, it’s just been slow going. ORC has done a lot of monitoring and research on air quality issues and approaches that could be used to address them.
You can read a summary of that work through the links at the very bottom of this page. For those who are ready to indulge their inner environment nerd, we’ve linked to some key science reports below to get you started.
A warm home is vital in cold Otago winters, and burning wood or coal has been one of the cheapest ways to keep out the chill. Unfortunately, all fuels and burners are not created equal, and the fuels and burner technology people use have a huge influence on air quality.
Research shows that two issues cause most of the air pollution in winter:
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Inefficient burners. Older burners, multi-fuel burners and open fires are the most polluting. Worse, they can also be inefficient at keeping your home warm. Ultra-low emission burners (ULEBs) have been around for a while now and are the most efficient for heating, and produce the lowest emissions when operated correctly – which leads us to the second issue...
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The way people use their burners. Things like using wet wood, overloading the burner, or dampening it down overnight cause incomplete combustion, and excessive smoke. Burning household waste can release toxins into the air. When good burning practices are used, a burner should only produce a small amount of smoke on start- up and then burn more cleanly.
Here are some ways we can manage home heating to improve air quality in Otago. Some of these approaches would need be used together to comprehensively tackle air quality. Since air quality varies across Otago, different approaches could be used in different places.
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Require all new installations of solid fuel burners meet Ultra-low emission burner (ULEB) criteria*
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Phase out all solid fuel burners that do not meet ULEB criteria
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Prevent installations of solid fuel burners in new or existing dwellings using other heating methods (i.e. if your home doesn’t already have a burner, you can’t get one installed)
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Phase out the burning of coal for home heating
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Phase out all solid fuel burners
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Work with power suppliers to improve the reliability and affordability of electrical heating appliances
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Provide financial support to help Otago homeowners replace higher emitting solid-fuel burners
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Education programmes about wood burner best practice
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Establish a firewood certification scheme for suppliers so residents know they are buying dry wood (like the Good Wood approved provider scheme used in Southland)
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Support improvements in housing standards and housing insulation programmes, which can improve air quality by reducing the need for heating.
*An ultra-low emission burner (ULEB) is the cleanest type of wood burner, and they must meet an emissions standard of 38 milligrams per megajoule or emit less than 0.5 grams of total suspended particulate per kg of fuel burned and have a thermal efficiency of 65% or greater.
Outdoor burning is often used in rural areas for things like green waste disposal, disease control and land clearance. Some people also burn food waste and other rubbish, although this isn’t allowed under the current Air Plan.
The effects of outdoor burning are hard to measure and in the places with the worst air quality, it is important that outdoor burning is controlled and only used if necessary. Smoke from outdoor burning also causes nuisance for residents and visitors. Outdoor burning has historically been the leading cause of air quality complaints to ORC’s 24/7 pollution hotline.
The current Air Plan prevents outdoor burning in most urban spaces and some smaller rural properties but allows it everywhere else. but allows it everywhere else.
Here are some ways we can manage outdoor burning to improve air quality in Otago. Some of these approaches would need be used together to comprehensively tackle air quality. Since air quality varies across Otago, different approaches could be used in different places.
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Prevent outdoor burning during winter months (April–September)
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Require smoke management plans for large-scale/long-lasting outdoor burning
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Prevent outdoor burning on properties smaller than 2 hectares
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Require alternatives to burning where practicable (e.g., composting, mulching)
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Education programmes to ensure that people know what to expect from rural activities and make sure that people doing outdoor burning know about smoke management best practice
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Liaise with city/district councils about their waste collection services, to ensure that people can easily get rid of their rubbish without burning it
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Establish a measurable particulate matter limit for outdoor burning at property boundaries.
We rely on vehicles for personal and commercial transportation, as a convenient and efficient means of travel over short and long distances. However, most vehicles still run on fossil fuels which contribute to environmental degradation by emitting greenhouse gases and pollutants and driving climate change and air pollution.
Vehicle emissions (especially from diesel vehicles) are the main source of NO2 in urban areas.
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution has become a bigger concern in Otago as we understand more about its impact on our health. NO2 levels in Otago meet the national air quality guideline (100 µg/m³).
However, it’s worth noting that current levels are close to the limits recommended by the World Health Organization (25 µg/m³) in 2021, which are based on more recent science than our national guideline.
Vehicles and their emissions are controlled by central government, but there are still things ORC can do to reduce vehicle emissions. Some of these approaches would need be used together to comprehensively tackle air quality. Since air quality varies in each Otago town, different rules could apply to different parts of Otago.
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Create policies that recognise the effects of NO2 emissions and focus on reducing those emissions
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Improve public transport to reduce reliance on private vehicles
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Decarbonise ORC’s fleet vehicles and buses
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Joint education campaigns with city/district councils (e.g. on not idling vehicles, road sharing); and
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Work with city/district councils and other authorities to reduce vehicle emissions (e.g. support pedestrian and bike infrastructure and rerouting freight).
These emissions often accompany important economic activities – processing, small-scale trades, growing crops, and building infrastructure to name a few. They can cause a range of air quality impacts, but we can take similar approaches to manage them.
These types of emissions are not a major contributor to poor air quality on a regional scale, but they can have heightened local effects, especially on their neighbours. Industrial emissions can include a range of hazardous substances, and odour is responsible for 33% of air quality complaints to ORC’s pollution hotline. Agrichemical sprays present health and nuisance issues when they drift to where they’re not wanted. Dust can present a range of problems, depending on its source. In the Air Plan, these issues are mainly managed through permitted activity rules and resource consents.
Here are some ways we can manage these activities to improve air quality in Otago. Some of these approaches would need be used together to comprehensively tackle air quality.
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Strengthen existing rules for industrial and trade premises to ensure dust and odour from permitted activities stay within the property boundary
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Require resource consent applications for discharges to air to use the best practicable option test to avoid or minimise adverse effects on air quality
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Ensure adequate setbacks or buffer zones to help minimise the adverse effects of new activities on amenity and air quality, especially for neighbouring activities.
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Require dust or odour management plans (currently used in Canterbury)
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Provide information about FIDOL (frequency, intensity, duration, offensiveness, and location) assessments to complainants and emitters (currently used in Nelson and Canterbury); and
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Strengthen existing rules for agrichemical spraying.
Community drop-in sessions were held across the region between 29 July and 22 August 2024 to give people the chance to talk to staff about the air quality in their area, some of the current air quality issues identified above, the suggested approaches to improve local air quality and other questions they had.
Drop in sessions
Drop in sessions were held in the following towns:
- Mosgiel -12pm, Monday 29 July 2024
- Dunedin -12pm and 4pm, Tuesday 30 July 2024
- Oamaru - 12pm and 4pm, Thursday 1 August 2024
- Balclutha -12pm, Tuesday 13 August 2024
- Milton - 4pm, Tuesday 13 August 2024
- Ranfurly - 4pm, Wednesday 14 August 2024
- Arrowtown - 1pm and 4pm, Tuesday 20 August 2024
- Wānaka - 12pm and 4pm, Tuesday 20 August 2024
- Alexandra - 12pm and 4pm, Wednesday 21 August 2024
- Cromwell - 12:30pm and 4pm, Wednesday 21 August 2024
- Roxburgh - 12pm, Thursday 22 August 2024
Online sessions
Two online sessions were held on Monday 5 August at 12:30pm and 7pm, where we presented the above local air quality issues as well as approaches to improving air quality. You can view a recording of the webinar below or watch on our YouTube channel.
People were also encouraged to give their feedback in a survey and share some information around their burning habits.
The survey closed at 11:59pm, Monday 26 August 2024, with online and in-person responses being collated and analysed to prepare a report to Council. This report will be publicly available and, along with Council’s feedback on it, will inform development of a refreshed approach to air quality management.
If you would like to keep in touch with the Air Quality Management Review process, you can email the team at: policy@orc.govt.nz
