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National environmental standards
When the national environmental standards came into effect
Introduction
This page outlines the national environmental standards and when they came into effect.
Standard for Dioxin and Other Toxics - Prohibited Activities
| Prohibited Activity | Date prohibition came into force |
|---|---|
Prohibited - burning of tyres in the open. Standard does not apply to tyres burnt in facilities with appropriately designed emission control equipment. Ban does not apply to the burning of tyres as a supplementary fuel source at facilities with emission control equipment (e.g. cement kilns). |
8 October 2004 |
| Prohibited - bitumen burning for road maintenance. | 8 October 2004 |
Prohibited - burning of coated-wire in the open. Standard does not apply to wire burnt in facilities with appropriately designed emission control equipment. |
8 October 2004 |
Prohibited - burning of oil in the open. Exemptions for fire training and film special effects. Does not apply to the burning of tyres as a supplementary fuel source at facilities with emission control equipment (e.g. cement kilns). Burning of oil for frost protection permissible only with resource consent. |
8 October 2004 |
Prohibited - landfill fires Ban relates to known and deliberate fires, i.e. that it prevents a fire being lit, and also if there is a fire then the standard requires that all reasonable actions are taken to put it out. |
8 October 2004 |
Prohibited - school/healthcare incinerators unless resource consent obtained. Date for compliance brought forward after consultation with Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health. |
1 October 2006 |
Prohibited - new high temperature hazardous waste incinerators Excludes incinerators in Auckland, New Plymouth and Christchurch in existence at the time of the regulation being gazetted. Two of these (Auckland and Christchurch) have since been decommissioned. |
8 October 2004 |
Standards for Ambient Air Quality
Contaminant |
Standard |
Time Average |
Allowable exceedences per year |
Start date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Carbon monoxide (CO) |
10 mg/m3 |
8 hours |
1 |
1 September 2005 |
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) |
200 µg/m3 |
1 hour |
9 |
1 September 2005 |
Ozone (O3) |
150 µg/m3 |
1 hour |
0 |
1 September 2005 |
Particles (PM10) |
50 µg/m3 |
24 hours |
1 |
1 September 2005 |
Sulphur dioxide (SO2) |
350 µg/m3 |
1 hour |
9 |
1 September 2005 |
570 µg/m3 |
1 hour |
0 |
Design Standard - Wood Burners
| Standard | Start date |
|---|---|
Design particle emission limit of 1.5g/kg. Does not apply to open fires, cooking ranges or coal burners. |
1 September 2005 |
| Applies to all new wood burners installed in urban areas. | 1 September 2005 |
| Design thermal efficiency 65%. | 1 September 2005 |
Standard for Control of Landfill Gas
| Standard | Start date |
|---|---|
All operative landfills with total capacity of over 1 million tonnes of refuse required to collect and destroy or utilise landfill gas. Does not apply to closed landfills. Does not apply to landfills having less than 5% organic (putrescible and biodegradable) matter. Non-complying sites have 3 years to install a gas collection system. This gives time for the landfill to fund, design and install a system. |
8 October 2004 |
| Sites that flare landfill gas required to meet a flaring temperature of 750°C with a retention time of 0.5 seconds. | |
Surface methane emissions shall be less than 5000 ppm. Landfill gas collection system shall be designed, and operated, to ensure that surface methane emissions do not exceed 5000 ppm. |
Last updated: 12 March 2008
