2nd abatement notice issued in Marlborough

Radio New Zealand is reporting a second abatement notice being issued for excessive noise from frost fans.

In addition to the notice that was issued earlier in the year to Waihopai Holdings in the Waihopai Valley (which is currently under appeal), this one has been issued to a Wairau Valley offender (which comprises about 40 fans on two properties).

Now, I have no idea which property this would be.

However there are a limited number of possibilities.

One would be McKean Estates which was profiled in stuff.co.nz here and a little bit more about the machines they use here They are described as a property up the Wairau Valley that has 46 frost fans.

Of course it might not be them, they might well be operating their machines compliantly, unlike their efforts in the Hurunui (Waiata Vineyards) where Mr Mckean has been operating his fans in contravention of the resource consent that was issued to them for years.

Now irrespective of which property this is, the question has to be asked. Why has it taken so long?

Also, the Council have been reported as saying that it believe that the number of excessively noisy fans that are operating in the area is in the minority.

I beg to differ.

They have no evidence of this. Quite the contrary, they have done no testing to make this assumption. The only survey I am aware of which was done last month showed that almost ALL Orchard Rite and Amarillo fans were running at excessive speeds.

I'll make a bet here. I bet that the property that has just been issued the 2nd abatement notice is running Orchard Rite or Amarillo frost fans. If these fans are not the problem, I will shut down this blog site.