Deadline looms for heating upgrades
About 2000 Invercargill home owners will not be able to use their home burners after January 1, but Environment Southland says it will take an ‘‘an education first approach’’ to enforcing the new rules.
Under Environment Southland’s Regional Air Plan, burners [log burners] installed before January 1, 1997, in homes inside the Invercargill airshed, were unable to be used next winter, in a bid to improve the city’s air quality.
Environment Southland compliance manager Simon Mapp said while an education first approach to enforcing the new rules had been implemented since the new Air Plan was notified, there was likely to be an increase in enforcement actions regarding excessively smoky domestic burners.
‘‘Keeping warm is essential and we do not want anybody to be cold in their homes.’’
Complaints from the public and officer observation were likely to be the main sources of information, he said.
Enforcement action at this stage would be reserved for those where education has not worked. It may take the form of official warnings and abatement notices initially.
The use of open fires for home heating was banned in January 2017.
Environment Southland air quality scientist Owen West said in Invercargill there were an estimated 2680 households in the pre-1997 age bracket in 2011.
He said that figure was based on the 2011 emission inventory and a 2015 estimate at the time of the Air Plan hearing placed the number at closer to 2028 households.
West said it was likely the number had reduced further, as households would have continued to replace burners in recent years.
Burners of the same age would be phased out in the Gore airshed in January 2020.
In Gore, the number was expected to be no higher than 450 households, and people replacing burners were expected to have reduced that number in recent years.
Gore was given a longer phaseout period for its older burners, as it was closer to meeting the target set by the National Environmental Standards for Air Quality.
West said despite the banning of open fires, there had been no change in air quality in Invercargill.
‘‘‘It is too soon to expect a significant improvement in air quality.’’ Environment Southland air quality scientist Owen West
‘‘It is too soon to expect a significant improvement in air quality. Year-to-year variability in weather conditions makes such short-term trend analysis unreliable.
‘‘Only open fires have been phased out at this stage and it takes time to see substantial change in burning behaviour. We may see some improvement over the next year with the phase out of pre-1997 burners, but that will also depend on the type of winter we have.’’
In November, the Invercargill City Council said there had been an increase in applications for building consents in relation to solid fuel heaters, as people install heating which complies with the Regional Air Plan.