Presentation by Ted Taylor

Conflicts and Trade-offs inSustainable SolutionsA Greater WellingtonPerspectiveTed TaylorManager, Environmental Monitoring and Investigations

• Ambient airquality ismonitored ingazettedairsheds• Assessedagainst NES-AQ

• Wellington Region generally has goodair quality• Vehicle emissions are well within thestandards, peaks are noted at rushhour in central city• Domestic fires contribute to raisedlevels of fine particulate matter (PM 10 )in winter– PM 10 gets close to or exceeds theStandard (50 µg/m 3 24 hour average) on afew days each year in 4 of the 8 airsheds

• Masterton is the airshed with thegreatest likelihood of exceedance ofPM 10 Standard– Up to 3 days per year– Large proportion of homes havewoodburners– Firewood is readily available andessentially carbon neutral

Wellington - Chartwell

Masterton

Contribution to PM 10 – high pollution night inMastertonNatural19%Other2%Transport2%Domestic77%

Solid fuel heating methodsNumber of households, MastertonPellet burner, 60Multi-fuel burner,361Open fire, 301Woodburner(10 years +),1345Woodburner(> 5 yrs), 1565Woodburner(5-10 yrs), 1761

Options for Masterton• An Action Plan is being developed todeal with Masterton PM 10• Implications of exceeding standard– Not providing for the protection of publichealth, one of objectives of the NES-AQ– Implications in relation to issuing resourceconsents after 2013

• Modelling indicates with naturalattrition of burners over 20 years oldthe Standard will be met in 2016– Approach is Carbon neutral if burners arereplaced by compliant burners– Carbon cost if clean heat installed– But no certainty Standard will be achieved,this would potentially prolong negativehealth effects

• To achieve Standard earlier (by 2013)will require replacement of– 1350 burners with compliant burners, or– 750 with clean heat (zero emission)options• Cost to community, low socioeconomicgroup tend to have the oldburners

• Looking forward– Marginal exceedance of Standard, do wedo anything?– If we act it will be to reduce PM 10 , not lookfor a Carbon neutral solution