WDC Needs to Commit to Sewerage Upgrade - Commissioners

Whangarei District Council has effectively been given until early February to adopt a comprehensive upgrade programme for its Whangarei Wastewater Treatment Plant - or risk the rejection of a crucial consent change it wants.

The Whangarei District Council (WDC) wants the Northland Regional Council (NRC) to allow it to significantly increase the maximum daily volume of minimally-treated wastewater it can discharge from the plant into Limeburners Creek during extreme wet weather.

If granted, the WDC would be able to discharge up to 140,000 cubic metres a day from the Whangarei Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), 50,000 cu m more than its current daily limit. Ironically, the higher discharge limit is being sought as a direct result of a significant WDC upgrade designed to reduce overflows of untreated wastewater from its nearby Okara Park Pump Station.

In a just-released ‘interim decision’, two Independent Commissioners who in June heard the WDC’s application to change its existing WWTP discharge consent, say the Okara upgrade “has done little more than transfer the problem to the WWTP”.

The same Commissioners - Hamilton barrister Doug Arcus and Palmerston North consultant Hamish Lowe – earlier this month delivered a recommendation on the Okara station in which they were “highly critical” of the way the WDC had handled its wastewater discharges into Whangarei Harbour over the past two decades. They reiterate those concerns in their latest decision on the WWTP.

“On the basis of the submissions and evidence to date we could issue immediately a final decision declining consent (for the additional WWTP discharge).”

Among their reasons were the “significant” adverse effects from the proposed discharge and the fact it was contrary to relevant local authority and Resource Management Act provisions. They said the reasons for the WDC not adopting an appropriate level of treatment “are not sufficiently compelling”.

“Possible alternative methods of treatment of the discharge have not been considered (or at least advanced to us).”

But in part because of “further substantive upgrades” the WDC reportedly has planned for the WWTP, the Commissioners were prepared to issue an interim decision. This effectively puts the matter on hold and means the existing 90,000 cu m maximum daily discharge limit remains in place for now.

The Commissioners say it appears the upgrade the WDC has publicly promised could phase out discharges of minimally-treated wastewater to Whangarei Harbour “over a reasonably short period”.

“However, evidence of those upgrades was not sufficiently detailed for us to understand exactly what is proposed and more particularly the likely timing.”

On that basis, the Commissioners want the WDC to adopt a comprehensive upgrade programme for the WWTP to provide “full treatment” for all the wastewater it receives.

The Commissioners noted the Regional Council is already about to embark on a wider, compulsory review of the WWTP’s consents and told the NRC they want progress reports by 04 November this year and 04 February next year.

“If by 04 February 2011 there is in the view of the Commissioners inadequate progress by either or both Councils, then the Commissioners will confer to consider whether or not this (interim) decision should be made final.”

In the meantime, those who appeared before the Commissioners during the June hearing (including members of the public) still have the right to formally ask the Commissioners to make their interim decision final; in other words, decline the application.

In the event of such a request, the other parties involved would have 15 working days to respond – and those responses would then need to be considered by the Commissioners – before the Commissioners decide how to proceed.

Meanwhile, the interim decision can now also technically be appealed to the Environment Court.

The Commissioners’ full decision can be viewed on the NRC website via: www.nrc.govt.nz/consentdecisions

Speaking today after the Commissioners’ decision, NRC CEO Ken Paterson says he has noted the WDC’s recent significant change in direction in terms of its approach to wastewater discharges into Whangarei Harbour.

“I very much look forward to working cooperatively with WDC Chief Executive Mark Simpson to deliver a wastewater management system in line with environmental requirements and the expectations of the community.”

ENDS

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