Spray drift complaints up but compliance improved

The number of complaints about drift from seasonal kiwifruit spraying increased this year – but the increase is more likely due to increased awareness of the complaints procedure rather than more incidents.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council Pollution Prevention Manager Bruce Gardner said the Regional Council had received about 40 complaints this season, more than double the number received last year.

Widespread promotion of the council’s Pollution Hotline and the grower organisation NZKGI Hotline for receiving spray complaints had led to the increase, rather than an increase in incidents. Hydrogen cyanamide is sprayed on kiwifruit vines to promote bud break, ensure earlier and shorter flowering and more flowers.

“We do not believe that the increase in complaint numbers reflects worsening compliance with regional air plan requirements. In fact the anecdotal evidence is that there has been a major improvement this year,” Mr Gardner said.

“New initiatives introduced this year to improve compliance, including yellow spray warning cones trial at Te Puna, yellow rural post box covers, honorary wardens, trial education programmes in schools at Te Puna and training for Rural Post delivery drivers to collect spray drift information to a standard suitable for enforcement were all highly successful and we wish to build on these for next year.”

He said there had been positive comments from the public at a spray drift issues meeting at Te Puna, good feedback from NZ Post drivers who had been trained to act as ‘eyes and ears’ during the spray season and positive comments from Pollution Prevention team complaint responders.

Other initiatives came from the growing and contracting industry, such as the use of Air Induction nozzles and low drift additives. Spray contractors also used lower risk alternatives to hydrogen cyanamide in sensitive locations, or where boundary shelter was porous or incomplete.

“These initiatives and the use of ‘no spray’ buffer zones next to sensitive locations have also been very successful. We will be working with the kiwifruit industry to build on these initiatives next year as well.”

Mr Gardner said pre-season meetings with growers and contractors were very useful for staff to pass on key messages about notification and other Air Plan requirements.

“Despite the effort put into education of growers and contractors this year, we still received many complaints of non notification or inadequate notification. More than half of all spray-related complaints were for non notification. This is an area where there is still plenty of room for improvement.”

ENDS

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