Thursday, 17th May 2012
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| Woodburner battle may make it to the courtroom |
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By Sue Newman July 27 2011
There was huge public opposition to the programme, with 3942 people signing a petition calling for woodburners of any age to be operated in the Ashburton District. This was presented to Rangitata MP Jo Goodhew in September. Ms McKenzie's petition went, initially, to the Ministry for the Environment, where it was rejected and that meant it stalled, losing an opportunity to go to Parliament for a vote. "I was asked to write a submission to accompany the petition. I read many reports on the subject and spent hours writing a 41-page submission. "Basically I did my best to make a good case for the Ashburton/Tinwald people. "The petition and submission were not given to an independent review board or group. It was evaluated and finally rejected by the very department that came up with the air quality rules, the Ministry for the Environment," Ms McKenzie said. To say she was frustrated was an understatement, she said. The Ministry for the Environment countered her submission with one of their own, in which it stated that there was no safe level of PM10 (particulate matter that is less than 10 microns in diameter). Achieving zero PM10 was impossible, Ms McKenzie said. "They fully support regional councils like ECan that adopt more stringent air quality targets. The ministry considers ECan to be a national leader in air quality management. However, we proved without a doubt that Canterbury is one of the few regions that tests air quality in the worst location and ECan is using the most accurate meters. "The combination of these two variables means that we appear to have a high level of failures when compared to other airsheds." The reality was that new burners, in many cases, were no more clean burning than the old burners. It depended on what was burned and that was up to individuals to take responsibility for ensuring their own fires were non-polluting, regardless of their age. The Government was aware that cold homes were responsible for more deaths than pollution 1600 against 700, she said. With the petition rejected and ECan standing by its rules, the only option left was to try to fight the air rules in the courts, she said. "It would be interesting to see if the ban on woodburners over 15 years old stands up under scrutiny. ECan spent $2.2 million in 2010 alone on activities relating to air. "Basically they have a lot of money to pay for lawyers - we do not." While the Government now has a compliance date of 2020 for no more than one air pollution day a year, as part of achieving that goal, ECan's policy for Ashburton had a cut-off date of May 1 this year. It did not follow the government's date extension although it had adopted an educative approach rather than an enforcement one.
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