Prohibited activities in the NES

There are seven standards banning activities that discharge significant quantities of dioxins and other toxics into the air.

These standards are mandatory regulations introduced through sections 43 and 44 of the Resource Management Act 1991. They automatically supersede local controls placed by local government– unless the local government controls are stricter.

Clauses 4 and 5 of the regulations (see links below) outline how the bans apply.

4 Prohibition on discharges from certain activities

5 Prohibition on granting of resource consents for certain activities

There is nothing in the standards that directly affects rules in plans. However, section 43B (the “stricter provision prevails rule”) “trumps” any rule which attempts to set a more lenient standard.The rule will be trumped whether or not it is in effect before the standard comes into force.There is no protection for rules in existence at the time the standards come into force.

Clauses 6 to 12 of the regulations describe the prohibited activities. Under the regulations, no person may carry out the following activities (effective 8 October 2004):

• deliberate landfill fires
• burning of tyres in the open
• burning of road tar seal (bitumen burnoff)
• burning of coated wire in the open (to recover metals)
• burning of oil in the open

In addition, no new high temperature hazardous waste incinerators are allowed to be built, and from October 2006, the use of school and hospital incinerators will be banned unless they obtain a resource consent.