Break sought on dirty air deadline | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

More time has been requested by Greater Wellington Regional Council to clean up Masterton's dirty winter air.

This winter, Masterton breached the air standards - averaging more than 50mcg of fine particles in a cubic metre of air over 24 hours - four times.

Fine particles can infiltrate lungs and cause breathing difficulties. Ted Taylor, environmental monitoring manager for the regional council, the main culprit in Masterton was domestic fires.

Under environmental law, regional councils must notify the public if the limit is crossed more than once a year, which they have done by notices in the Wairarapa Times-Age. The National Environmental Standards are up for review and the regional council has supported a change allowing the 50mcg limit to be crossed three times before public notification.

By 2013, under current law, if breaches continue the regional council will be forbidden to issue resource consents for businesses to discharge smoke into the air.

However, Mr Taylor said that would be unfair. "We've got evidence the problem is domestic fires."

The council also supports changes that would set the accountability date back from 2013 to 2018 and ensure industry is not penalised for a problem caused by homeowners.

Carterton also breached the limit, at 53mcg on July 2.