Unleaded petrol available soon

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 4, Issue 32, 27 January 1987, Page 6

Unleaded petrol available soon

Motorists in the lower North Island will soon be able to use unleaded petrol following the arrival of the first shipment at Wellington from the Marsden Point oil refinery aboard the tanker Kuaka today. lt will, however, take some months for the lead contamination in the new fuel to settle down to a level at or below 0.05 grams per litre as compared with 0.45 grams per litre in 96 octane fuel. Minister for the Environment Phil Goff said that the delivery marked further real progress in the reduction of lead contamination in the environment.

Mr Goff said that about 60 percent of all new vehicles built or imported into New Zealand no longer required leaded high octane fuel for proper performance. The majority of modern low compression motor vehicles are designed to run on unleaded 91 octane and perform no better on higher octane fuels. Mr Goff said that the use of leaded petrol in such cars both increases maintenance costs and needlessly adds lead to the atmosphere. He said that while viewpoints differed as to the extent of problems caused by lead emissions from motor vehicles, there was absolutely no dissent from the view that the unnecessary addition of lead to the environment ought to stop.

Lead emissions involve environmental pollution, health risks, and damage New Zealand's ability to promote itself as a clean and unpolluted nation in marketing the country and its products. Mr Goff stressed that motorists should check whether their vehicles ought to be running on unleaded petrol or leaded 96 octane. This information is readily available from motor vehicle manufacturers, franchise dealers, the Environment and Energy Ministries, and from pamphlets circulated to service stations. lf the car is not designed for unleaded petrol, motorists should continue to use 96 octane leaded. Mr Goff said that the international trend in motor veh-

icles was moving swiftly towards production of cars designed for unleaded petrol. Leaded petrol was being . phased out in Japan, Western Europe and the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. The overwhelming majority of New Zealand cars were being manufactured in these countries. He said motor vehicle manufacturers and automotive engineers had warned that without the option of unleaded petrol, New Zealand would risk being confined to the use of increasingly outdated technology, lt would also probably mean New Zealand in the future paying higher costs for vehicles produced for the minority of countries still using leaded fuel.