Council is continuing to work with Cedenco to prevent future trade waste bylaw consent breaches.

Between October 2019 and September 2020, Cedenco was non-compliant 14 times on various trade waste consent conditions, including higher than maximum pH levels, suspended solids and discharging coloured substances.

“In addressing non-compliance with the trade waste bylaw, Council staff have taken an educative approach, being clear on expectations and working closely with Cedenco to ensure improvements to their processes. There have been no consent breaches under the Resource Management Act,” says Helen Montgomery, Council’s director of Environmental Services and Protection.

During the 2020 processing season, Cedenco formed a project team and put in place a number of measures to prevent breaches from occurring.

Those measures included an external review of waste water systems, clarification improvements to remove solids, modifications to chemical and lime dosing and the installation of a buffer tank system to moderate water flow through the equipment.

After completing a full month of sweetcorn processing, there have been no breaches of their trade waste consent.

Cedenco Gisborne general manager Carla McCulloch says the team has been working hard to improve the quality of discharge water from the Innes St factory.

“The discharge occurs primarily from the washing of various vegetables in our process. We’ve been working with Council throughout this improvement process and have taken advice from water treatment specialists around NZ to determine the optimum solutions. That research and collaboration has resulted in a large investment in filtration and settlement systems prior to the current season and so far we have very pleased with the outcome.

“All Cedenco staff care very much about our local environment and we will continue to monitor this situation very closely to ensure we meet our responsibilities.”

Council’s community lifelines director David Wilson says industry compliance is a key focus for the trade waste team.

“As with other Councils around the country, industry non-compliance in turn affects Council’s Ocean Outfall Consent conditions. It is important resource consents are rigorously monitored and if there are issues, they are rectified immediately.

“As the regulator, Council acknowledges there were issues but Cedenco has made considerable progress over the last 12 months to improve their trade waste operations and achieve compliance.”

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