Frosty issue heating up

Everyone knows the value of a good night's sleep. But what if a multimillion-dollar investment, one that benefits not only the region but the whole country, is coming between you and your nightly kip? That is the conundrum facing Marlborough as debate over frost fans winds up for another season. CHERIE HOWIE reports.

It's 4am in the Wairau Valley and the lights are on.

Not at one house, not at two, but at least a dozen as The Marlborough Express travels west along the valley floor.

What is up with the residents of the valley?

Has there been an influx of newborns, or are they all just avid infomercial watchers?

Maybe there is an outbreak of eosophobia (fear of daylight) lurking in the homes scattered around the valley?

However, wind down the car window and a possible reason for residents' night-owlish behaviour soon becomes clear.

Hundreds of frost fans are cutting through the frosty air, drawing warmer air down from the inversion layer to protect vulnerable grapevines and their newly burst buds.

The scene is repeated across the district.

Like anyone with hundreds of thousands – perhaps even millions – invested, grape growers do their best to mitigate the risks of cold weather.

Cold nights help preserve the natural acidity in the grapes and help give intense characteristics to different varieties in summer, but frost close to harvest can affect the ability of the vine to fully ripen the grapes.

Growers try to protect their crop using helicopters, sprinklers and – to the ire of some sleep-deprived residents – frost fans.

But, how far is too far to go when protecting an industry that brings both a much-needed economic boost, and prestige, to not only Marlborough, but the whole country?

For Sara Stringer of Wairau Valley it is the use of two-blade machines less than 300 metres from houses.

She doesn't like frost fans, doesn't think there should be any, but the use of the noisier two-blade machines within 300m of homes particularly has her back up.

However, frost fan retailer Chris Clifford says two-blade machines are not always the noisiest.

Mr Clifford, FMR Group's managing director, says though the cheapest machines on the market, retailing for between $45,000 and $50,000 are the noisiest, his quietest fan is the two-blade Defender. Top-end fans cost up to $65,000.

"It's nothing to do with the fact [noisy fans] are two blades, it's the technology."

Ms Stringer, who has four two-blade fans near her house, the closest just over 100m away, says she has been kept up 13 or 14 nights since last month.

"I don't mind helicopters, harvesters but this ... it's like torture ... if you turned your stereo up next door, I guarantee I could get it taken off you, and yet this is allowed."

Ms Stringer, who suffers from ME and lingering effects from a serious car crash, like bleeding lungs, says lack of sleep has left her spitting up blood or unable to walk.

She has contacted the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board, but board health district manager Peter Bassett says while he has "no doubt" fans are a problem, it is the Marlborough District Council's role to sort it out through the district plan.

The board can, and has, helped by providing information from its own acoustic consultant.

Still, why would someone build their house next to a vineyard and then complain about noises associated with growing grapes such as frost protection?

Ms Stringer says she and her partner asked the Fyvie Vineyard owner Ross Low before building if he planned to install frost fans.

"He said no. We're nice people, we took his word for it."

Mr Low did not want to comment.

Ms Stringer says her dogs also suffer, with one almost slicing its tongue off on a kennel roof because it was so stressed.

Another person told her his pigs trampled each other when the fans were turned on.

Those concerns have reached Marlborough SPCA, and manager Carol Schofield says she is also not happy about the fans, but could do little because vineyard owners were not deliberately being cruel.

"It's a tricky one ... they are not deliberately stressing out the animals, but they are stressing them out."

She wrote in March to the ombudsman, council and Wine Research executive officer and district councillor Gerald Hope about the problem. None replied.

Ms Stringer's pressure on the council proved more effective, with the council testing the closest machine this year, proving it did not comply with noise rules and ordering the speed it runs to be turned down.

While it now complies, Ms Stringer says the fan is still too loud.

"Other vineyard owners are taking up the new, quieter technology.

"Some care about the welfare of others, others just don't."

It is a sentiment shared by others in the valley.

Hillersden farmer Duanette Stigter estimates she has more than 100 frost fans around her property, some about 100m away, but it is the cumulative noise that is the problem.

"Human beings don't seem to fit into the equation ... it sounds like you're in an ocean liner, but you're not enjoying yourself."

Marshall Day Acoustics associate Miklin Halstead agreed multiple fans could be a problem.

"You've got a cumulative effect ... if you've got 50 fans further away, they can make more noise than one next door."

Testing fans to see whether they meet permissible limits was sometimes difficult. Fans affecting a particular home could be spread across different vineyards, making it difficult to identify whichwas making the noise, especially if those testing did not have permission from the owner to test the fans.

Mrs Stigter moved to her farm 20 years ago, long before the arrival of Marlborough's now signature crop.

It is background shared by Glenys Parsons, who lives on the other side of the Wairau Valley township.

She has a two-blade fan between 100m and 200m from her house.

"It's absolutely disgusting ... it does your head in. I just can't understand why they put grapes here in the first place. We have -6 degree Celsius frosts here."

New Zealand Winegrowers chairman Stuart Smith's comment last week that "the rural zone is an industrial zone" is "poppycock", she says. "Rural noises are sheep baaing, cows mooing and dogs barking."

However, New Zealand Winegrowers chief executive Philip Gregan says residents need to realise rural areas are not quiet places.

"They never have been, never will be."

Mrs Parsons also took a swipe at Marlborough Mayor Alistair Sowman for telling residents to stop calling him about the fans at night.

"He was saying, 'why should I be up'. Why should we be up!"
Ruud Maasdam also knows how the Wairau Valley residents feel.
He is surrounded by frost fans at his Waihopai Valley home and they disrupt his sleep.

However, Mr Maasdam is also a winemaker with his own vineyard, Staete Landt, in Rapaura.

He does not use frost fans, but would not rule it out.

"Marlborough shouldn't bite the hand that feeds it. We wouldn't all be so prosperous in this region without the grapes.

"It's a week a year, what are we moaning about."

Gibson Bridge Vineyard co-owner Julie Simmonds feels the same. While she says she has some sympathy for those with children, most complainants were being unreasonable.

"There are a lot of people here who should be grateful for what grapes have done to this place."

Lone Gum Vineyard owner Chris Simmonds, who has six fans, blames the council.

"It's a [Marlborough District] council problem, they have been remiss allowing machines to go in [too close]. I think 100m away from a house is too close, but then, this is a rural area too."

The council is also responsible for allowing too many lifestyle subdivisions in rural areas, he says.

Wrekin Terrace owner Ian Anderson, who runs two two-blade fans on his Brancott Rd property, also thinks some fans are a problem.
"I wouldn't like one 100m from my house and some people start them too early."

However, he also feels the council is to blame.

"They allowed them and now they are giving people free hotel rooms."

The council paid for Ms Stringer to stay in a motel for one night last week, which Mr Sowman labelled a one-off for compassionate reasons.

Mr Sowman denies the council made a mistake when fans first began arriving in the region a decade ago. "The council was very clear that they wanted to enable viticulture, they probably didn't understand the extent of the issue ... the actual number [that would be installed] was beyond anyone's understanding at time."

The council needs the support of the industry and the community to solve the problem, Mr Sowman says.

"We can't solve this on our own."

A solution will not be found this year, but he is hopeful the beginnings of change will take place and show that the council is serious about the problem.

He is encouraging the industry to speak with growers who have fans close to houses. They have not yet agreed to do so.

"We're going to need goodwill on behalf of the industry and growers. I'd like to think they have that goodwill in them."

The council has also backed a raft of measures designed to regulate new fans, including lowering the acceptable decibel level and changing rules about the distance fans can be from houses, but the measures are not retrospective. The proposals are open to public feedback until Friday next week.

Many people have questioned why the proposals are not retrospective, but that is simply not possible without Government support, Mr Sowman says.

That support has not been given, at this stage at least, with Kaikoura MP Colin King saying Environment Minister Nick Smith has told him national standards on fans should not be rushed in.

"He believes that could actually be more detrimental."

Mr King says while he has sympathy for residents, he is "bewildered" about how to find a solution.

"There's some pretty powerful forces here, you've got a pretty major contributor to Marlborough and the local authority locked in an impasse. Then you've got human health affected.

"There's an old saying 'once something has been crooked, it's hard to put in place ... no one was able to foresee the perverse circumstances we find ourselves in."

 

The grape gripe

Marlborough's wine industry has boomed over the past decade.
Steadily over time the rural landscape has transformed into viticulture production. The area under vine has tripled in size from 5731 hectares in 2002 to 16,682 ha this year. With an increase in plantings, there's been an increase in the need to protect the grapes from frost which has the potential to kill the grapes.
After a severe frost in 2003 when grape yields were radically reduced in some areas, there was an increase in the amount of frost fans erected.
Other common methods of frost protection are the use of water protection and helicopters.
In July 2003 the Marlborough District Council recorded fewer than 50 frost fans which had building consent. By April 2009 this had jumped to nearly 1000.
Complaints have also risen over the last decade, with one made each year to the council between 1998 and 2000, as well as 2003, increasing to seven in 2004, 10 last year and six so far in 2009.
There were two complaints in 2005 and 2007 and three in 2006.

 

Who puts the stoppers on the choppers?
Helicopters are commonly used for frost protection which results in an increased level of noise in certain areas.
However, there are limits to the control of the activity by the Marlborough District Council.
Noise associated with a helicopter landing areas can be controlled by the council but once it is in the air, the helicopter becomes the responsibility of the Civil Aviation Authority.
Civil Aviation Rules require flights to operate at a minimum height of 500 feet (152 metres) above ground level except when taking off, landing or carrying out frost protection duties.
The rules allow helicopters to fly at whatever height is needed to carry out effective frost protection.
The CAA audits operators to make sure they can legally carry out frost protection. There is surveillance of frost protection operations, and spot checks also take place.
The CAA suggests neighbours talk to each other before the frost season starts to discuss any concerns.

- The Marlborough Express