Breathing in Foul-Smelling Emissions from Over the Fence? House Filling up with Toxic Fumes? Getting Your Washing Smoked Out? Here Are Your Rights.

Back around New Year, when the temperatures were baking hot and the sun was scorching, I considered the timing ideal to haul out an almost boutique's worth of beautiful clothes I'd had in storage, since my globe-trotting lifestyle got placed on a decade-long hold.

Now, my washing machine happens to be housed in my garage. So here I was - on this beautiful hot and sunny mid-summer day - with colour-sorted clothes, many bagged up in delicates bags, and hundreds of wooden coathangers strewn around my large back garden . . . a park-like back garden overlooked directly by an imposing big two-storey house with only a tiny back yard of its own . . . and a woodburner's chimney that directs pretty much straight down onto my washing line.

I was out there, on that baking hot day for hours (and hours and hours) putting the painstakingly sorted clothes through short gentle cycles and then strategising how on earth to get them all onto one Hills hoist clothes line . . . which I achieved with considerable ingenuity, involving but not limited to, clothes hangers hanging off of clothes hangers and garments pegged vertically, horizontally, and diagonally.

The Most Toxic Woodburner Fumes I've Ever Smelled . . . On This Mid-Summer Day

Finally, I went indoors. Emerging to check with pride and satisfaction on my productivity and creativity a couple of hours later, I found (wait for it) the neighbours' wood burner (you know, the neighbour with the large windows that look straight down onto my yard) pumping out the most toxic fumes I've ever smelled a wood burner emit. On this mid-summer day.

To cut the rest of the story mercifully short, I've spent the ensuing seven or so weeks washing, re-washing, washing, re-washing and repeating that same cycle over and over again - as I pull yet another lot of stench-permeated clothes from one of the large airtight sealed crates and other containers I have had to source to seal them up in, in the interim . . . although they'd already stenched out my living room in the meantime.

Truly, they smelled PUTRID. After multiple re-washings I've had to surrender to defeat and some have had to be thrown away. I'm STILL going through the process (the smoke-out having occurred YET AGAIN while I was in the re-washing and re-hanging-out process). And some have been washed so many times that they've lost their structure.

My initial response to the occurrence was to hand the neighbour a bag of freshly picked plums over the back fence and a sugar-sweet plea for future consideration . . . explaining, particularly, the very special nature of the hundreds of clothing items I was trying to process (or now, re-process).

Freshly-Picked Plums & An Uber-Polite Plea Didn't Work

With the repeating of the incident (the plums and the plea didin't work), I finally wrote to the neighbour, telling them of the days and days I've spent trying to save as many of my beautiful (and some especially sentimental) clothes as possible, and the hundreds of dollars I have spent on multiple large bottles of eucalyptus oil, peppermint oil, Dettol, commercial-sized boxes of washing powder, containers and new delicates bags. And that's without even considering the monetary value of the trashed clothing that I've had to throw away, and that which I might yet still have to assign to the wheelie bin.

But . . .  it's all fallen on completely unsympathetic ears, shall we say.

A letter arrived (in response to my own request) saying - in essence - that they'd be doing it again any time they wanted. What's more, the letter read (and I have no idea why this was included, but here we go), they'd be taking down their net curtains across their back windows. Maybe I'm meant to find that threatening or something. I don't. What I do find it, is astounding how little regard the home's inhabitants must have for their own privacy. All I can say is, I do hope they don't get around their house naked. It wouldn't be something I'd be keen that I or any of my visitors should witness.

In the irony of ironies, while I was in Wellington yesterday, the not-so-neighbourly-neighbours over the back - or one of the property's apparently quite numerous inhabitants of various age groups - apparently turned up at my door wanting to involve my attending tradespersons, in my absence, in the matter. What said woman - with her letter in hand - didn't know, was that said tradies were here (a) getting a previously non-opening window opening again to get some additional rectifying airflow through the house, and (b) trying to work out where to relocate my washing line to i.e. out of the reach of said neighbours' noxious emissions.

The Word from the Local Council

Now, in the meantime, quite a few people have become acquainted with my clothes recovery mission . . . from the local chemist who recommended the eucalyptus oil, to the friend who came to help me sort those that were intended for a recycling boutique, to a few other friends who visited and commented on the smell of the clothes, and/or who asked why I had large containers of clothes around the house. (Oh, AND my neighbour on one side, who had advised that he wouldn't exercise in his driveway such was the stench in the air on the day in question.)

Those who braved the up-close sniff test, advised me to call the local Council and ask what the policy was concerning the burning of rubbish in domestic wood burners.

So I did. And here is part of the core intel provided by the Council's Environmental Services Manager:

Firstly, this is an issue which is covered extensively in the Health Act 1956, Section 29 Nuisances, and Part 4 of the Bylaws - Prevention of Nuisance from Fire and Smoke.

At any time, therefore, writes the department head, an affected resident should:

" . . . telephone (number provided) and log a service request about a smoke nuisance, this will then be logged for one of the Environmental Services Team to attend.

"The Customer Services Team will then load the service request, with the details you have provided and pass this onto an Environmental Services Team Member.

"An Environmental Services Team member will attend the property and make an assessment of the discharge to air, if it is still occurring when we arrive. They may engage with the owner if they are home to gather more information. We will educate the owner about not burning rubbish in their fireplace.

"If the issue continues, we may engage the support of the Greater Wellington Regional Council in relation to illegal discharge air."

Regional Council Takes Serious Approach to Air Pollution from Home Heating

Greater Wellington Regional Council works under the Resource Management Act 1991 and has a specific air pollution hotline.

From GWRC's website:

"Concerned about air pollution?

"If you are being affected by unpleasant or excessive amounts of chimney smoke, dust or agrichemical spray, call our Environmental Hotline on 0800 496 734.

"We measure levels of air pollution from traffic and home heating emissions and check that our air quality meets national standards and guidelines to protect the health of our communities.

"Everyone deserves clean air to breathe. Breathing polluted air can lead to respiratory (lung) and cardiovascular (heart) problems. Children and the elderly are especially vulnerable to air pollution. We can all be part of keeping our air clean."

The Ministry of the Environment has guidance about wood burners and the rules here:

https://environment.govt.nz/guides/authorised-wood-burners/frequently-asked-questions/

"My neighbour’s chimney is producing a lot of smoke, what can I do?"

"Your local regional council may have rules in its regional plan that prohibit or limit smoke from chimneys. You can call your regional council and bring this to their attention.

"Smoke from home heating appliances such as wood burners causes increases in ambient air pollution which can cause adverse health effects in your community. If the appropriate fuel is burned (such as only firewood in wood burners) and if it is used correctly, this can help minimise pollution."

"Can a wood burner be exempted from complying with the National Environmental Standards for Air Quality?"

"No. The standards were introduced to ensure a baseline level of national consistency. Allowing exceptions to the National Environmental Standards for Air Quality would go against the intent of the standards and would compromise their integrity."