Tokoroa air quality worse than last year

Despite continued funding of air quality schemes and education from both the South Waikato District Council and the Waikato Regional Council, the air quality in Tokoroa is not improving. In fact it is getting worse. Already this winter Tokoroa has had nine exceedances in PM10 levels in our air, last year we only had 10 in total over the whole of winter!

Council needs our community to take responsibility with what they are burning; your dirty smoke is affecting your neighbours.

"The biggest contributing factor to this problem is the burning of wet wood. Burning other materials, such as plastic bottles, is also harmful to the environment and they should be recycled," said Council's Group Manager Regulatory, Sharon Robinson.

Other contributors are old woodburners and chippys. Council has two schemes that can help our community replace these non-compliant burners with new energy efficient products; Warm Homes Clean Air and Heat Swap.

"We know our community does not want to see the Clean Air Bylaw back on the table, but if things don't improve, it may be Council's only option," says Mrs Robinson, "However, we're not there yet and our community still has time to turn things around."

This July we will be holding an Air Quality Week from Monday 21 to Saturday 26. During this week we will be holding a number of information sessions where we will be discussing our air quality problem. Council is encouraging the community to attend these events. They are a great opportunity to learn about the issue and ask any questions you may have. Keep an eye on your local newspaper for times and venues.

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