Yesterday the Minister of the Environment, Nick Smith, visited the region to announce a major review of the Air Quality Standards which threaten the traditional use of fire places in Napier and Hastings.
I welcome this announcement as a pragmatic and realistic response to this region’s outcry about what such standards mean. The region’s leaders and local MP’s have asked the Government to have a look at this for us and they have.
I am also pleased to have been asked to be part of the five-member review panel to give a local community perspective. The review will be completed by the end of this year, including some sort of submission process.
Many will ask what all the fuss is about.
Simply, there are some world standards about fine particulate matter which gets into people’s lungs that affect life expectancy and health. In the last five years the Hawke's Bay Regional Council has measured these levels and, in Hastings and Napier for the past three years, these threshold levels have been breached. Last year, in particular, the levels in Hastings were significantly breached.
Most of the pollution is coming from household fires on cold winters nights. The current standards say that if these conditions are breached by 2013 the “no renewals” or “new industrial consents” can be issued. This will have a major impact on our regional economy.
The only option available to the Hawke's Bay Regional Council, to reduce the levels of pollution, is to ban certain types of fires and encourage changes to more efficient burning types of heating by 2013 at a cost of 95 million dollars. For our community this is completely unacceptable and impractical. To its credit the Hawke's Bay Regional Council has put some real money into a programme that will help with the costs of making changes to peoples fireplaces.
It has always been my contention that there are far worse health outcomes from being cold in the winter than a small amount of air pollution. At night most people are inside keeping warm.
The Government’s recently announced 330 million dollar package to insulate 180,000 homes is to be applauded. In Hastings we are well on the way to being one of the first cities to be able to take up this offer.
Combine this with yesterday’s review of the Air Quality Standards and it would appear some common sense is being returned to the ways we heat and insulate our homes. For this, I thank the Government.
