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Albany community meeting

20 October 2005

National Environmental Standards

Drinking water

We need to specify a risk-assessment methodology for environmental groundwater protection. What should this be based on? There are numbers for rivers and streams but not groundwater sites. Sites can be cleaned and remedied but groundwater plumes are remaining and are potentially polluting downstream.
The National Environmental Standards strongly emphasise human health but do not cater for other species (e.g. marine life).
It is important to have different standards for different catchments because user group interests should be taken into account.
What do you look at to determine water quality? The Ministry of Health specify a range of contaminants.

Contaminated land

We need to adopt the National Environmental Protection Measures (NEPM) environment numbers (Environment Exposure Levels) as well as the health numbers
Auckland Regional Council’s air, land and water plans are very chaotic and differ greatly from MFE guidelines with regard to sampling procedures. Auckland Regional Council requires composite sampling which is very expensive. Residential sampling requirements in Auckland Regional Council are very onerous, requiring the averaging of concerns over the site (remediation across the whole site) and does not pick up on hotspots. A 560m² residential section is still required to have the same testing requirements as large-scale sites.

General comments

How are Standards set? How often are they reviewed?
Setting National Environmental Standards and National Policy Statements is a positive approach
In terms of applications for air discharge many other industries that are using the same chemicals are not yet monitored. What are the repercussions for not complying? Councils do not have the resources to check on what people are doing and have to rely on complaints to give them this information.
We need to consider developing noise standards for other issues (not just road transport) to assist district councils. Could road noise National Environmental Standards be retrofitted for existing roads?
There is a possibility of developing National Environmental Standards for levels of contaminants in stormwater (run off) but also of design National Environmental Standards for roads to minimise run-off (e.g. by using berms and swales).
Trade-offs between protection and costs need to be looked at as the costs of meeting the Standard can be huge comparative to the benefits.
Hot spots for pesticides are Keri Keri and Hawkes Bay. This presents a very political issue that MFE and Ministry of Health should deal with.
Who monitors Standards? Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA), through the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act (HSNO), sets levels and controls but is not responsible for compliance or monitoring. There is also an issue of how to harmonise EELs (Environment Exposure Levels) and TELs (Tolerable Exposure Levels) with only National Environmental Standards levels and regional council guidelines under RMA. It is very transient because science and knowledge move on.
MFE should have a role in educating about chemicals.

Resource Management Act

Resource consents

Timelines (especially on relatively minor consents) are still a problem. Time frames are being abused.
We need to prioritise consents (especially where urgent work and remedial action is needed) to remediate and avoid adverse consequences and tie in perhaps with emergency powers.
We could focus on permitted activities more so minor consents go through quicker. A checklist approach has been suggested.
We should approach consents through cost-benefit analysis assisting sustainable development as well as avoiding adverse effects. The focus should be on permitted activities.
On-site meetings are very important and should be encouraged. This improves the approach of council (perception) and also knowledge of application.
Many people cannot make good decisions so there needs to be more sharing of best practice examples.

Capacity building

We need to resource planners (i.e. encourage them through scholarships). Planners should operate in partnership with people.

Hearing process

Consultation before an application might help prevent objectors.
Pre-hearing meetings and working with stake holders helps resolve issues on consents.
Lack of certainty and delays stops investments.

Environment Court

Moving away from the Environment Court to more robust council decisions and processes is a good idea.

Infrastructure

There is disillusionment in Auckland over public transport (bus ways). What is happening?
Will changes regarding the infrastructure affect the growth strategy?
What does the ‘integration of infrastructure with land use’ mean? What happens if you do not do it?

National leadership

Do changes to national leadership mean a move away from strong local decision making?
When do people decide to ‘call-in’? How do ‘call-ins’ work? Guidance is being developed.
How does the public get involved in ‘call-ins’? How do we encourage people to make submissions? These should be backed up by the Environmental Legal Aid Fund.
What about strike-out powers? So many submissions on plans are irrelevant and take up so much time. The reduced content of plans makes them easier to read.
What sort of issues would fall into the category of decisions on matters of national significance?
Regional councils are not as in touch with communities so it is important to talk to local councils.

General comments

The strengthening role of Regional Policy Statements and National Policy Statements will be good as it will involve more integration.
Standing - everyone can make a submission and this can be positive or negative and could delay the process.
The Act is good but the politics and slow processing can slow it up. The slow process can be prohibitive to doing innovative development (instead do Medicare developments as permitted).
Further information on amendments is welcomed but needs to encourage stringent initial evaluation to avoid multiple drip-fed information requests. (This is not a concern about flow on information which arises out of the provision of the requested information as this is accepted as valid).
There are air quality issues (i.e. biomass to charcoal).
The Regional or National Policy Statement will be much more specific next time round.
The implementation of the RMA (rather than the actual wording of the Act) is a problem (e.g. the cumulative effects eating into greenbelt in Christchurch). The public perception of the Act is negative.
The RMA has a negative perception but it is actually doing a good job. We need to promote it so that it gets a better press and then changes are not made to it. More education could help give people more information and perceive it better.
MFE needs to provide more guidance on what is good development in the urban sense.

Waste

Waste minimisation

The government has a key role to play in encouraging less waste at the beginning of its stream by shifting consumer demands.
We need to look to overseas for who should be MFE’s key partners. These countries have bigger waste issues and have been managing it for years. Their systems need to be adapted to fit and suit New Zealand given our position in the world.
There is a need to focus more on the input end (e.g. window envelopes cannot be recycled and polystyrene).
There seems to be a focus on domestic manufacturing. We need to look at imports as well. We need to create a level playing field. There is a good movement on polystyrene and others.
Within the hierarchy of decision making for territorial local authorities, cleanfill should not be as conservative as residential limits.
Construction and demolition workshops recommend that materials should be reused or recovered instead of being dumped. There needs to be more incentives to ensure that these materials are reused.

Landfills

In Rodney District Council levies will be collected at the source by a waste management company. A waste by-law with Waitakere, North Shore and Rodney ensures this.
There are fears that the national levy will not come back to regional councils. Favour lies with regional source levies as they are fairer, though neighbours can make use of ‘free riders’. All landfills need to be levied the same.

Product stewardship

A lot of packaging comes with high quality products from Asia where product stewardship value is not forwarded.

Packaging Accord

Frustrations have arisen with the Packaging Accord because it is voluntary and not a mandatory approach for manufacturers. It cannot be dealt with at a regional level. It must be a national mandatory approach as the voluntary approach has taken too long and it is not in line with New Zealand’s ‘clean and green’ image.
Product stewardship is important and needs to be regulated, not voluntary.

Education and information

MFE has historically used forum with key members from industry. This is good but it is getting the information out to the wider community that needs to be worked on.
There is an educational need for the community to realise the real cost of recycling.
MFE needs to focus consumers on one waste (e.g. polystyrene). How do you shift the mind of the consumer? We are now a disposal, throw away society. This drives the price and manufacturing.
MFE needs to encourage more sustainability in education. The New Zealand curriculum is being drafted now and there are not currently any sustainability aspects.

Recycling, reuse and community

The question is how we create incentives to produce recycled products and encourage recycling. Consumers need to be educated to buy environmentally friendly products.
It is good that environmentally friendly products are becoming more available.
New Zealand does not have any good electronic or whiteware recycling schemes. For example, in Holland you pay a recycling fee when you buy the product. New Zealand needs to improve its schemes so that they are more obvious and accessible. Consumers also need to be made more aware of how products can be recycled.

Institutions and legislation

The costs of recycling are high versus the image on the other side. Incorporating the code of practices into legislation will pick up all of the ‘little guys’ who are typically the worst offenders.
Compliance with this is through self audit. Authorities cannot allow them to operate without code of practices. A good example of this is waste oil. The market for this has been a success. It is driven by oil companies and is industry led. The challenge is when there is not a good market at the end.

Hazardous waste management

How do you recycle batteries and other hazardous wastes? Hazmobile is one scheme used to collect these wastes but it is not very accessible. For example, it would be good to have battery recycling facilities at the local supermarket.

General comments

Marketing the disposal cost higher than the recycling cost will change consumer habits.
There is a pilot plant in New Zealand regrinding and rebinding polystyrene and using it for insulation.
Giving incentives to innovators will encourage them to find new ways of using waste. There could be a national landfill levy to fund this but would need to make sure that the money actually goes to the innovators.
The environment choice tick could be expanded to include the packaging of the product.
The government also has an important role in encouraging community councils to collect water and greywater.
New Zealand being at the bottom of the world needs to ensure that it deals with waste here and not offshore.
The government needs to take action at a national level on tips.
Importers need to take responsibility for wastes that they import that cannot be easily recycled.
There is support for container deposits.

General topics

Urban development, design and planning

Growth is needed but there should to be a balanced approach to development.
The environmental effects of development still need to be managed.
Are high rise apartment developments the first steps toward slums? Aesthetics need to be improved. How should development be progressed?
The intensification of urban development is not necessarily a good thing (i.e. higher costs and lower standard of living). The cost of $35,000 per apartment has been given as the cost of upgrading infrastructure.
The expansion of the city should be allowed and it can have positive outcomes in terms of lower vehicle emissions and lower costs of infrastructure. Should we be actively controlling the expansion?
There are concerns about public transport not keeping up with the expansion of the city.
People do not understand what ecological sustainability is. It is an ecological system that sustains itself and does not have waste (i.e. permaculture).
There does not have to be a conflict between business and the environment. If we plan carefully urban expansion is not necessarily bad.
Overseas development has used resources in an exemplary way.
Design can be sustainable. It does not have to be a drain on the community.
Why do areas not use the resources in their area? There is an enormous potential to do things different if resources are organised differently.
Everything needs to be looked at from the perspective of forever. Growth needs to take this into account.
There is frustration with people that should know better like community boards, local government and central government (e.g. looking after the edges of bush remnants, spraying bush areas and waste management etc.)
People have tickets to say that they are experts and the people in the community do not have expertise or are not recognised as having a point of view or expertise in the area.

Environmental education and information

Education is outdated. Universities are still educating people for a high energy culture including infrastructure. We continue to build what we cannot maintain. Education should be about life and low energy. The third world does this much better.
There needs to be a building code and requirements for chemically treated materials. We need to prepare for a low energy future.

Council processes

There is an issue with councils employing staff from other countries (particularly non English speaking countries such as Iraq and South Africa) that have no knowledge of New Zealand systems and do not understand our conditions (e.g. purchasing chemicals and using them incorrectly which can lead to contamination).

Resource Management Act

There is fear that the RMA has become dominated by lawyers which leads to expensive processes that cannot be fought by less resourced people within the community including some small farmers (e.g. an organic farmer being challenged on a consent held since the mid 1990’s).

Air quality

There has been debate over air quality changes in Auckland over the last ten years. Testing vehicle emissions is a positive approach and should be considered further. There is also support for fuel quality improvement to allow newer vehicle technology to be more widely available in New Zealand.

General comments

Localised actions will help preserve biodiversity.
Some biosecurity issues appear to be difficult to manage (e.g. sea squirt etc.) What can be done to try and deal with these proactively before the problem arises?
What sort of planning is needed to meet the government’s current sustainability goals?
What is current practice? Are tertiary institutions taught the right thing? Is rate payers’ money going to be used to continue carrying out bad practices?
Why not greywater solutions and the benefits from these?
‘Qualified practitioners’ are directing council’s activity.
We need some quality assurance from council’s water supply.
We need to apply true costing and embodied energy accounting to make visible to the consumer the true cost of how we live and consumption. The Ministry should take the lead on true costing rather than quadruple line accounting.
There is concern about marine farm applications and that the size and scale of farms are understood and taken into account and the court costs of contesting farmers. They have had support from MFE in the past and would like to continue the relationship and support with partnering or on case by case support on issues or trail blazing.

Last updated: 17 September 2007