Wairau/ Awatere Resource Management Plan The only method of quantifying air quality is to monitor it. Monitoring air quality is both expensive and resource intensive. The most effective way of meeting monitoring needs is through a collaborative approach with other councils, both in establishing and running the monitoring program and sharing available data and equipment. 7.5 Issue Enabling the community to provide for its health and wellbeing. Rules within this Plan manage air quality by permitting discharges from industrial or trade premises (subject to various conditions) and regulating all other discharges. Many of the rules in this Plan are therefore directed at permitting a range of activities to continue, while ensuring that any adverse effects on air quality are avoided, remedied or mitigated. 7.6 Objectives and Policies Objective 1 The adverse effects of discharging contaminants into air are avoided, remedied or mitigated, including adverse effects on local ambient air quality, community wellbeing, amenity values, resources or values of significance to tangata whenua, ecosystems, and water and soil. Policy 1.1 Ensure that all persons discharging contaminants into air, avoid, remedy or mitigate any adverse effects arising from that discharge. This includes all effects likely to be noxious, dangerous, offensive, or objectionable to such an extent that there is an adverse effect on the environment. Policy 1.2 Promote measures which avoid, remedy or mitigate the discharge of contaminants to air at their source. Policy 1.3 Ensure that any measures adopted avoid, remedy or mitigate the effects of discharge of contaminants to air. Policy 1.4 Promote the use of industry guidelines as a means of reducing the effects of discharges from industrial premises. Policy 1.5 Encourage use of voluntary guidelines and best practices for use of agrichemicals. Most discharges to air are a form of waste disposal in that they contain unwanted by- products of processing. It is now standard practice to minimise waste at source. These policies apply this principle to the discharge of contaminants to air. Measures to control discharges can themselves have an impact on the environment. For example, scrubbers using water can contaminate water with heavy metals, and hence there is also a need to mitigate the effects of mitigation measures. 7.7 Methods of Implementation Rules Rules enable the discharge of contaminants to air from industrial trade premises and other potentially significant point sources by: 7 - 4