Emission Impossible Ltd

Following a competitive tender in 2011, we were selected to assist the Bay of Plenty Regional Council with implementing the Ngāpuna Dust Reduction Operational Plan.  This involved visiting and drafting individual dust management plans for over 30 industrial and commercial sites in the Ngāpuna industrial estate of Rotorua.

In most cases this was fairly straightforward, with requirements to minimise vehicle speeds and use sprinklers on unsealed areas.  However, a number of sites agreed to implement more expensive measures such as sealing trafficked areas.  The dust management plans were all voluntary, and the majority only draft status, so we were not certain how things would go in practice.

In May 2013, we were engaged to assist with follow-up site inspections and to finalise outstanding draft plans.  Louise Wickham (Emission Impossible Ltd) accompanied Sherryn Owen (BOPRC) on over 30 site inspections and were really impressed to see how much work had been undertaken since late 2011.  Where necessary, the vast majority of sites had taken measures to avoid or mitigate emissions of dust.  In particular, Castlecorp deserves special mention because they had the inspired idea of converting large areas of unsealed land on their site into market gardens to provide food for the Salvation Army.

We think the key to the success of this project was the forward work undertaken by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council in getting good science to underpin policy at the start.  The Ngāpuna Dust Reduction Operational Plan is clear and reasonable, starting with education and moving through to enforcement.  Coupled with a fair and overtly transparent approach, Council succeeded in getting nearly every site in Ngāpuna involved.  This meant that everybody took ownership of sorting out their own site and created a sort of peer pressure to ensure progress.

It was June last year that the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified diesel engine exhaust as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1) based on sufficient evidence that exposure is associated with an increased risk for lung cancer.- The re-classification has large implications for anybody exposed to diesel exhaust – which is most of us, most of the time seeing as we all live in cities where trucks and diesel cars roam free.

This (Australian) Radio National article considers the implications for residents near a busy road and the Australian mining industry.

Whilst it seems a distant prospect in January, the first regional council reporting deadline to the Ministry for the Environment is 1 September 2013 and will be upon us before we know it.

The National Air Quality Compliance Strategystates that the Ministry will review monitoring data as well as airshed implementation progress reports. For polluted airsheds, the provision of an airshed action plan and a progress report may also be mandatory.

If you need a hand with any aspect of compliance – please give us a call.

We are pleased to announce that Louise has received accreditation under the Resource Management Act from successfully completing (grade = excellent!) the Ministry for the Environment Making Good Decisions programme.

Louise can now act as an Independent Commissioner for Hearings on resource consents, plan changes and/or designation changes.  Louise’s certificate is valid until December 2015.

The latest amendments to the Land Transport Rule: Vehicle Exhaust Emissions 2007 came into force on 1 January 2013.  In summary, the amendments:

• require used vehicles certified from 1 January 2013 to be built to the current recognised exhaust emissions standards;
• incorporate (in the Rule) new Australian Design Rules and equivalent Euro standards for new light vehicles from 1 November 2013;
• incorporate implementation dates for the US 2007 and Japan 09 emissions standards for new vehicles.

All vehicles entering the country (new or used) must now meet at least Euro 4/IV or equivalent.  From 1 November 2016, all new petrol, diesel, LPG and CNG vehicles will be required to meet Euro  5/V.  No date as yet has been set for tightening the emissions requirement to Euro 5/V for used vehicles entering the fleet.

The New Zealand Transport Agency has issued a consolidated version of the rule which incorporates the original rule plus all four amendments to date.

From 13 December 2012, the revised workplace exposure standard for softwood dust has been mandatory.  The revised standard is 2 mg/m³ (time weighted average for both eight-hour and 12 hour shifts).

In July 2011, the Department of Labour updated the New Zealand Workplace Exposure Standards and Biological Exposure Indices.  The update corrects a number of errors in the December 2010 edition.

In July 2012, the Updated Health and Air Pollution in New Zealand (HAPINZ) Study 2012 was publicly released.  Gerda was the lead author of the study update which includes recent baseline data (census, ambient monitoring, source apportionment and inventory data) as well as utilising the most current New Zealand-specific epidemiology and social cost data to estimate health effects and social impacts from air pollution.  Whilst not primary research, the updated study has been internationally peer reviewed and endorsed by a number of eminent researchers (including Künzli).

In addition to updated estimates and documented, transparent methodology, a key feature of the update is the production of two new models:

• HAPINZ Update Exposure Model (available on request from Emission Impossible Limited)
• HAPINZ Update Health Effects Model (available at www.hapinz.org.nz)

The latter enables end-users to output results nationally, regionally, by local authority, by Statistics New Zealand urban areas or by airshed.  End-users are also able to run scenarios for comparison with the base case, by selecting from a range of plausible input values of population, exposure and epidemiological exposure-response functions.  The scenario option can be used to undertake sensitivity testing to:

• test the effects of different assumptions,
• evaluate the effects of population and emission trends, or
• review the effectiveness of different air quality management options.

We are very proud of this major achievement and welcome queries on the study.

In June 2012, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified diesel engine exhaust as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1), based on sufficient evidence that exposure is associated with an increased risk for lung cancer.

Large populations are exposed to diesel exhaust in everyday life, whether through their occupation or through the ambient air.  The ruling therefore has big implications for regulatory agencies globally.  It further underlines the importance of a risk reduction approach to management of particulate matter in the absence of any ‘safe threshold’.

In June 2010, the US EPA introduced a new one-hour national air quality standard for sulphur dioxide (SO₂) of 75 ppb.  Louise Wickham reviewed the final rule for the journal of the Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand.  A copy of her review can be viewed here (Wickham US NAAQS sulphur dioxide).

The Ministry for the Environment has published the 2011 Users Guide to the revised National Environmental Standards for Air Quality online.  Emission Impossible Limited was pleased to assist the Ministry in preparing this guide and we welcome any queries on its application in your region.