Outdoor fires out in Napier and Hastings
Complaints about smoke and burnings drop during May-August
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council hopes to continue the momentum from two years of decreasing smoke and burning complaints as the new restricted fire season begins.
Outdoor burning is banned for properties in the Napier and Hastings Air Sheds from May 1 to August 31.
Residents can check if they are in an Air Shed on the regional council website.
Council group manager policy and regulation Katrina Brunton said burning and smoke complaints during this season have decreased over the past two years
Complaints made from May 1 to August 31 have decreased from 143 in 2019 to 78 in 2021.
“Over winter in 2021, the air quality standards were exceeded only once in Napier while in Hastings, there were no recorded exceedances for the first time since recording began,” Brunton said.
The regional council began continuously recording air quality exceedances in 2005
Principal scientist air Dr Kathleen Kozyniak said the single air quality standard exceedance was recorded at the council’s Marewa Park monitoring site.
“The measurement was 54ug/m3 (micrograms per cubic metre) compared to the threshold of 50ug/m3.
“The National Environmental Standard allows for one exceedance a year, so while the threshold was exceeded the standard was not breached,” Dr Kozyniak said.
The monitoring site measures PM10, which are fine, easily inhaled particulates with a diameter less than 10 micrometres.
She said it wasn’t a typical exceedance because it occurred outside the early evening or overnight period where they expect high particulate levels from residential wood burning.
She said until 2013, there were typically three to five exceedances a winter in Napier and more than 10 exceedances a winter in Hastings.
“Exceedances dropped to single figures from 2014 and in recent years we’ve had three, two, one and none in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 respectively.”
“A big part of this decrease in exceedances was the regional council’s Clean Heat programme, which supported the community to replace non-compliant fires so that they burned more efficiently and improved air quality.”
The regional council aims to highlight rules and encourage consideration for others before burning by running its We Breathe What You Burn campaign again this year.
Brunton said residents outside an Air Shed can have outdoor fires if they follow some rules.
“These include only burning untreated wood, paper, cardboard, or vegetation, and ensuring that your fire isn’t a nuisance to anyone around you,”
Outdoor fires are not allowed at all if Fire and Emergency New Zealand has put a restricted fire season or fire ban in place.
The regional council response to those in breach of these rules can include instant fines up to $1000, abatement notices and prosecution.
There were 31 infringement fines and two prosecutions for illegal burning in the 2020-21 recording period.
Anyone wanting to report nuisance or illegal burning can contact the council’s 24/7 Pollution Hotline on 0800 108 838.