Air Quality - Plan Change 13

Proposed Plan Change 13 (Air Quality)

Proposed Plan Change 13 (Air Quality) to the Regional Natural Resources Plan has been extended by the Environment Court under s293 of the Resource Management Act 1991. The Environment Court has directed the Regional Council to notify a proposed new policy (Policy 12) to manage activities which discharge particulate matter less than 10 micrograms in diameter (PM₁₀) within the Mount Maunganui Airshed (MMA), and new provisions to control PM₁₀ emissions from unsealed yards in the MMA.

Proposed Policy 12 is publicly notified for public submissions, while the unsealed yards provisions have limited notification to identified affected parties.

Proposed Policy 12 of Plan Change 13 is now available for public submissions. Submissions will be accepted until 4pm on 30 April 2024.

You can send your submission by:

Email
MountAir@boprc.govt.nz

Online
Participate BOPRC

Post
Chief Executive
Bay of Plenty Regional Counci
PO Box 364
Whakatāne 3158

Relevant documents are as follows:

Hard copies of Proposed Policy 12 of Plan Change 13 and the Section 32 Evaluation Report are available for public viewing to 30 April 2024 at the following Regional Council offices:

Regional House, 1 Elizabeth Street, Tauranga
5 Quay Street, Whakatāne
Level 2, 1118 Fenton Street, Rotorua

Key Contacts

Mark Hamilton 0800 884 881 ex 8511, or mark.hamilton@boprc.govt.nz

Appeal on Rule AQ R22 (now Rule AIR-R28) resolved

We notified Plan Change 13 on 27 February 2018 and received 80 submissions and 30 further submissions.

Hearings were held in October 2018 and Council released its decisions on the submissions on 12 March 2019.

Ten appeals were lodged with the Environment Court.

Nine appeals were resolved through Court assisted mediation and consent order. All provisions of PC13 that were beyond appeal were incorporated into the AIR chapter of the Regional Natural Resources Plan and were operative from 6 June 2023.

One unresolved appeal to Rule AQ R22 and the definition of ‘bulk solid materials’ went to Environment Court Hearing.

The Court has issued three interim decisions. The Court made final rulings on the following provisions:

Policy 11 (AREA2-P1)
Policy 12 (AREA2-P2)
AQ-M1 (AREA2-M1)
Rule AQ R22 (AIR-R28)
Rule 22A (AREA2-R1)
Rule 22B (AREA2-R2)
Rule 22C (AREA2-R3)

A clean copy of the final provisions can be found here.

In summary:

Bulk solid material handling and log handling will be permitted activities for a three-year interim period (until 12 February 2027)– managed according to an interim permitted activity rule (IPAR).
Following the IPAR period, the activities will become restricted discretionary activities and will require resource consent.
The Court has directed the Regional Council to introduce provisions to manage unsealed yards in the MMA using the section 293 process of the Resource Management Act (see above).

These provisions, as well as the relevant additional definition of terms are now deemed operative and will be incorporated into the AIR chapter of the Regional Natural Resources Plan at the first opportunity.

Submissions