Next milestone reached on Rotorua’s journey to cleaner air

After 15 years of collective effort by the Rotorua community and Bay of Plenty Regional Council to improve air quality in the city, Rotorua will officially shed its 'polluted' air quality status today.

Rotorua has long struggled with poor winter-time air quality, due to smoke from wood burners getting trapped by Rotorua’s unique landscape. Smoke contains tiny particles, called particulate matter, and to help manage activities that may negatively impact air quality there is a national standard for particulate matter with a diameter of 10 micrometres or less called PM10.  

Under these standards, a geographical area (referred to as an 'airshed') is classified as ‘polluted’ if it averages more than one exceedance of the national standard per year for the previous five-year period. When an airshed is 'polluted', it means that Regional Council must decline certain consents for large air discharges as an extra safeguard while air quality is being improved.

If an average of one or less exceedances of the national standard per year is maintained in this area for a continuous five-year period, the 'polluted' status can be removed from the airshed.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council councillor Lyall Thurston says while this milestone marks significant progress to improving the city’s air quality, the journey towards cleaner air in Rotorua continues.

“Over the past 15 years, a series of measures have been introduced by Regional Council to address winter-time air quality issues. These include banning older style burners, launching an extensive education campaign, and enhancing compliance efforts. As a result, the Rotorua Airshed has met the national criteria to have its ‘polluted’ status removed.”

With research highlighting the ongoing health impacts associated with poor air quality, new national rules are expected in the future that will focus on limiting the release of smaller particles into the air.

Councillor Thurston says this change will bring new challenges to places like Rotorua, where a lot of people use wood burners to heat their homes.

“While there are still improvements to be made, with numerous smokey fires in use, this milestone marks an opportunity to say thank you to those who have already made the change to cleaner heating, and recognise how collective change has made an impact for the benefit of all Rotorua residents and visitors.

"We want to also acknowledge the work by the other members of the Rotorua Air Quality Working Group, including Rotorua Lakes Council, Kainga Ora and the medical officers of health at Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora.”

The Rotorua Airshed will officially lose its polluted status on Saturday 24 May. Under the current National Environmental Standards for Air Quality, if there are a certain number of exceedances in any five-year period, it will be reclassified as 'polluted' again.

Regional Council is responsible for monitoring and managing air quality. For more information on its work to improve air quality in Rotorua, visit www.boprc.govt.nz/rotorua-air

Background

• The Rotorua Airshed, a geographic area for air quality management, was established in 2005 to enable monitoring and the introduction of rules to help improve air quality.
• Regional Council has been monitoring air quality at two sites in the Rotorua Airshed since 2008, measuring small particles that can be inhaled, called particulate matter, against the National Environmental Standards for Air Quality. These standards ensure a minimum level of health protection for people living in New Zealand.
• Currently, there is only a national standard for PM10, (particulate matter with a diameter of 10 micrometres or less), not the finer particulate matter called PM2.5, although this is expected to change in the coming years.  
• For years, monitoring in Rotorua showed the city struggled with poor air quality over winter, primarily due to wood burner emissions being trapped by the city’s unique topography.
• Numerous exceedances of the national limits were recorded. At its worst, Rotorua was the city with the worst winter-time air pollution in the country, impacting air quality and those vulnerable to respiratory issues. You can view the number of exceedances recorded here: www.boprc.govt.nz/environment/air/rotorua-air-quality-project/
• Recent research highlighting the ongoing negative health impacts associated with poor air quality include Our air 2024 , PM2.5 in New Zealand - Modelling the current levels of fine particulate air pollution and WHO global air quality guidelines: particulate matter (‎PM2.5 and PM10)‎, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide. You can also view an update on air quality in Rotorua in the Agenda of Strategy and Policy Committee - Tuesday, 13 May 2025.
• New rules focusing on PM2.5 were consulted on through the Proposed amendments to the National Environmental Standards for Air Quality in July 2020. We are currently waiting on Government direction as to when these standards will be updated.  

ENDS

For further media information, please contact media@boprc.govt.nz

Image: View over Rotorua showing smoke from wood burners lingering over the city (from May 2025).