Greater Wellington

Air discharges can occur from a wide variety of activities, including industrial processes, rural activities, and construction activities. Some discharges to air can occur as a permitted activity, while others may require a resource consent.

Our compliance team monitor most air discharge consents. High risk sites are monitored at least once a year, whilst low risk sites are monitored less frequently.

Rules Relating to Air Discharges

Our Natural Resources Plan (NRP) contains rules relating to air discharges. Rule 1 to Rule 42 cover discharges to air in the Wellington region, including:

Outdoor burning
Domestic fires
Large scale combustion activities
Chemical and metallurgical processes
Cremation and incineration
Dust generating activities
Food, animal or plant matter manufacturing and processing
Fuel storage
Mobile sources
Gas, water and wastewater processes
Drying and heating of minerals
Discharge of agrichemicals
Fumigation

Proposed Plan Change 1 (PDF 53 MB) includes changes and additions to air discharge rules which have have immediate legal effect. We recommend that you contact us at notifications@gw.govt.nz to discuss how any updated air discharge rules may affect your activity.

If your activity does not comply with the permitted rules in the Natural Resources Plan, you will require a resource consent for air discharge. As part of your resource consent application and Assessment of Environmental Effects, the following may be required to included:

Dispersion modelling of proposed emissions. Dispersion modelling is used to predict the spatial extent and magnitude or ground level concentrations of air pollutants due to the discharge of emissions from an industrial process.
Analysis of meteorological data. Meteorological data is a component of dispersion modelling. GWRC holds meteorological datasets for nine domains in the Wellington region. Datasets are CALMET files, which are suitable for CALFPUFF dispersion modelling. If you need to obtain meteorological datasets, please contact us at notifications@gw.govt.nz.
An assessment of health effects. Air discharges may have a range of negative health effects on the community. We recommend any discharges of contaminants are assesses against appropriate regulatory documents, such as National Environmental Standard for Air Quality and Regional Ambient Air Quality Targets, or World Health Organisation guidelines.

The Good Practice Guide for Assessing Discharges to Air from Industry provides helpful assistance when preparing a resource consent application.

For further assistance, or to set up a pre-application meeting, call 0800 493 734. You can also access forms at our forms and information requirements webpage.

National Environmental Standards Relating to Air Quality

In addition to the rules in our Natural Resources Plan, Greater Wellington monitors and regulates the air quality standards set out in the National Environmental Standard for Air Quality and the National Environmental Standard for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Industrial Process Heat.

The National Environmental Standard for Air Quality has been in place for over 20 years. Within it are 14 standards that ban certain activities, including those that discharge significant quantities of dioxins and other toxics into the air; set standards for ambient (outdoor) air quality; outline design requirements for new wood burners in urban areas; and set requirements for large landfills to collect greenhouse gas emissions.

The National Environmental Standard for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Industrial Process Heat came into effect on 27 July 2023. It provides nationally consistent requirements for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from industries using process heat, including industrial sites and greenhouse gas operations, by:

Prohibiting discharges of greenhouse gases from new low to medium temperature coal boilers immediately and from existing coal boilers after 2037 (after this date no further consents can be issued),
Requiring resource consents to be held for new and existing fossil fuel boilers that emit 500 tonnes and above of CO2-e per year, per site, and
Requiring resource consent applicants to prepare and implement greenhouse gas emission plans and set out actions to reduce emissions.

Guidelines and Best Practice

The following Ministry for the Environment documents provide some helpful guidance for air discharge consent applicants:

Assessing Discharges to Air from Industry

This guide outlines good practice recommendations for assessing air quality in New Zealand, mainly for the purpose of resource consent applications. It provides a practical and reasonable approach to managing… Read more here

Published 01 Nov 2016

Download now (PDF 1.2 MB)

Assessing and Managing Dust

This guide provides information on how to assess and manage dust emissions from sources such as quarrying, aggregate crushing, abrasive blasting, sealed and unsealed surfaces, and material stockpiles. Read more here

Published 01 Nov 2016

Download now (PDF 1.4 MB)