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Otago Daily Times
08-08-2025
- Climate
- Otago Daily Times
Breach means 5 more years of air quality monitoring
Reefton's air quality will have to be monitored for another five years after pollution from smoky chimneys breached national safety standards this winter. The inland town is the only one on the West Coast with a gazetted airshed, meaning the regional council has a statutory duty to measure the levels of particulate matter (PM) in the air. The particles can penetrate lungs, enter the blood stream and pose a high risk for the elderly, pregnant women and people with respiratory problems. At the council's resource management committee meeting on Tuesday senior science technician Emma Perrin-Smith reported that on June 11, the level of PM10s in the air reached 72 microns per cubic metre, well over the national standard of 50 microns. The result was measured at the council's old air testing site, not at the newer site near the Reefton Area School monitored by Lawa (Land, Air, Water Aotearoa), Ms Perrin-Smith said. The town had recently come close to meeting the New Zealand air quality standards with several years without any breaches. But the June reading meant the council would have to continue testing the air for another five years, Ms Perrin-Smith said. The national standard, at present based on PM10s, would be even harder to meet if the government changed the standard to measure even smaller particles — PM2.5s — which was on the cards, she warned. Neither Reefton nor Westport would be likely to meet that standard. The regional council began testing the air in Westport in 2023 and while there were no breaches, it found domestic fires were responsible for 76% of the PM10s in the air. Other sources were sea salt, wind-borne soil and vehicle emissions. Sea salt was harmless, but toxic arsenic and lead were also detected from the burning of treated timber and old paint, the council's State of the Environment Report said. The council would continue monitoring Westport's air quality through 2025, and the data would be analysed to decide if that should continue. Preliminary air quality investigations had also begun in Greymouth and Hokitika and permanent air quality monitoring stations could be set up in those towns, depending on the results, the report said. - By Lois Williams ■LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
Otago Daily Times
25-06-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Community rallies around family after home burns down
Heeni Millar stands inside the remains of her family home, which burned down last Thursday. PHOTO: BRENDON MCMAHON A young Grey Valley family, left homeless after a terrible chain of events last week, has had offers of help pouring in from the wider community. The Greymouth Star has fielded numerous calls offering assistance after the family lost their home and all their possessions in a fire in Maimai. A tearful Heeni Millar spoke of the nightmare that befell her family last Thursday. "It was just one thing after another." She and her brother were waiting at the Stillwater underpass on State Highway 7 after a trip to Greymouth when a speeding car coming the other way ploughed into them. A third vehicle behind them was also damaged. Ms Millar and her brother were both taken to hospital in Greymouth. "I'm glad we took my car, a Holden sedan. We would have been worse off in his car." Ms Millar suffered bruising when the airbag deployed, and her brother had whiplash. "My partner [Braydon Main] rushed out the door [at Maimai] as soon as I rang him [about the crash]." Upon their return home that evening, they found the house on fire and despite efforts by emergency services, it burned to the ground. Their two pet dogs died in the blaze. "We have nowhere to stay, we have a couple of pairs of pants and we have been offered heaps of kids' clothes." The family has been in the upper Grey Valley for "a wee bit" including in Ikamatua, and had been living at the rental home in Maimai for "maybe three or four months" while working on a dairy farm. "We are staying at Somerville ... with my brother. "The community have been really good. "They have given us vouchers for food and my daughter, who attends Reefton Area School, got a few school clothes — the big problem at the moment is we have nowhere to put it. "I am trying to be positive, but it's hard." Their priority as parents was to not worry their daughter, who turns 6 in November. "We let her see the house the other day and she went a bit funny — she's taken it a bit hard too." It all stemmed from the accident at Stillwater, Ms Millar said. "Everything would have been avoidable if the cops had asked us to go away instead of letting us sit at the give way." A Givealittle page was being set up to help the family. — Greymouth Star
