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Dunedin community meeting

19 October 2005

National Environmental Standards

Air standards

Air standards are extremely tough. They are very restrictive on schools and there are no sunset clauses.

General comments

  • The National Environmental Standards have a very limited focus and do not take into account the overall health of streams.
  • Who has the responsibility? We need to make clear who decides on whether treatment plant upgrades or resource consent conditions are tightened.
  • Councils need to be trained to make the right decisions in emergency situations.
  • Individuals have to bear the costs of monitoring and complying. It is difficult to identify the real costs as they vary according to the natural location of the catchment area. For example, if farming intensification occurs in the upper catchment the effects are felt in the lower catchment. How are the costs divided up?
  • What is the impact on existing permitted users? This needs to be taken into the cost-benefit analysis.
  • There should be nationwide standards for lighting (i.e. considering energy issues, safety, unshielded lights on the roads and Australian standards).
  • There needs to be more information provided on the land use standard for siting emergency services, national standards for effluent outfall, a process for suggesting ideas on National Environmental Standards, use of incentives for waste and waste transport and the use of rail.

Resource Management Act

Environment Court

The Environment Court is not always best for local communities (and is feared by ordinary people).

Resource consents

  • The existing track record is important for applicants when applying for resource consent.
  • What happens when timeframes for resource consent are not met?
  • Under section 92 an applicant can decline a request for further information. Will this mean that councils will need to look at applications at the section 88 stage of the process?

Capacity building

  • Training and hearing options are good.
  • RMA amendments are positive and workable with better processes and the accreditation training was badly needed.
  • There are big resource constraints on technical expertise, as there is a lack of technical people (e.g. flooding management). When technical people disagree it is difficult to make a decision.
  • Some councils need a lot of help to get going (e.g. Environment Canterbury has not delivered on the Waitaki plan).

Hearings

  • There is concern about the situation where you have to declare conflicts. (E.g. defining who should be ‘outside’ the hearing so they can make political comment).
  • The accreditation of the hearing commissioner is a good idea. Training for council staff is also a positive move.
  • The resource for commissioner target information is similar to quality planning but specific to hearings.

Policies and plans

  • The relationship between local government and the farming sector needs national leadership. We need a National Policy Statement on sustainable farming.
  • The change in name of the Biodiversity National Policy Statement to the Rare and Threatened Species National Policy Statement loses the idea of ecosystems.

General comments

  • Decisions set precedents which open the door for others. The RMA needs to be robust.
  • We need to look at other issues including solar energy, housing, alternative waste and sewage management.
  • How will regional control affect the writing of district plans? Will this help landscape values? Will it provide more consistency?
  • We need to have guidelines and assistance for all other new RMA requirements such as standards (e.g. best practice examples).
  • There is inconsistency between the RMA plans (e.g. water). We need to audit RMA plans and assist where there are problems. We need a bench marking system within regional and local authorities for quality of RMA plans and consistency.
  • The public finds it difficult to keep up with recent amendments and regulations. The roadshow forum and brief summaries of changes have been a good idea to keep the public informed.
  • Amendments to call-in powers may lead to big projects being decided by the government and not the local decision makers.
  • Enforcement of rules is needed.
  • How much monitoring and leadership is MfE doing?
  • The RMA and Local Government Act consultation processes need to be streamlined. There is confusion with the Local Government Act, RMA plans and the community outcomes. The linking factor is the triennial agreement.
  • One lot of consultation will help with community understanding of consultation. (Otago has 6 processes going at the same time).
  • It was the right decision to retain de nuovo hearings. People have been encouraged to refine issues (e.g. Judge Smith has been doing this).
  • The Minister of Conservations role in the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement and coastal matters is out of sync. The Department of Conservation’s role under RMA needs to be reviewed.
  • Should MfE and the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) review their roles and work together?

Waste

Product stewardship

Product stewardship – there are products with long life cycles and it is hard to assess the cost of disposal.

General comments

  • There are costs to industry and consumers of taking on changes.
  • Environmentally friendly schemes can make businesses feel that they are doing the right thing even if they are not. Industry can always do more even if it is already involved.
  • Industry discharges to stormwater, and stormwater then discharges to the coastal environment. This is hard to control and monitor. Natural systems need to be used to treat.
  • The Dunedin Waste Strategy needs to get industries to recognise the issues of waste. Waste levies could fund the strategy.
  • There are issues with on-site wastewater discharges. We need to use design innovation ideas and National Environmental Standards for design and installation should be put in place.
  • It is hard to apply to and obtain funding from the Sustainable Management Fund. More community and small projects should be funded. The promotion of the Sustainable Management Fund could make it easier and MfE could assist.
  • MfE should partner with local government to set up environmental awards for recognising industrial achievements. Marketing, communication and publicity are incentives for businesses.
  • There are issues with the waste disposal of oil. Only domestic is being recycled at present and this needs to be extended to industry.

General topics

Environmental education and information

  • MFE needs to prepare some best practice examples in landscape management and protection.
  • Environmental education should form part of the school curriculum. However, there is a general unwillingness from schools and colleges to introduce environmental aspects. Schools should be the model and they need incentives and funding in order to teach from the start about energy efficiency.

Council processes

Building relationships between councils and applicants is very important. Relationships can become difficult if changes in councils occur. Applicants would like a set person to deal with like an ‘account manager’.

Energy efficiency

  • There is a lack of a national strategy for energy - we need one.
  • What are the options for power generation? Can we not find places for wind generation that do not impact on people? Such areas do exist but are controlled by the Department of Conservation. Remote locations for wind generation are not always best as then there is a need for further transmission requirements. Smaller schemes rather than larger schemes may be better.
  • Wind farms could be community owned rather than profit driven. There should be community ownership for power generation.
  • We need to be persuaded that it is really necessary before we ask people to move to more expensive heating methods. MfE needs to provide more information to persuade people in Otago that they should change to more expensive fuels to heat their homes.

Water

  • Dunedin has issues regarding growth and land use and access to water and the water quality of stormwater.
  • Who takes responsibility for storm water (i.e. district or regional issue)? Education is needed.

Biodiversity

The Department of Conservation’s tenure review is progressing but there are threatened areas in lowland and coastal areas in private ownership. We need to adopt an international biodiversity agreement. Private covenants can have limited access and limited monitoring and small areas may not be sustainable ecosystems especially under climate change.

General comments

  • Responsibilities need to be taken for historical sites (particularly in relation to contaminated land).
  • There needs to be greater testing of cost to business in new initiatives.
  • The Parliamentary Commission for the Environment’s report ‘Growing for Good – Sustainable Farming’ has concerns with mass transportation, intensification and regional or national leadership.
  • There needs to be central government leadership and co-ordination, consideration of social and environmental impacts and central government support for alternatives.
  • There is a large change in land use on the periphery of cities and towns in New Zealand creating new environmental issues.
  • Business drivers, opportunities for triple bottom line and strong international competition (e.g. China) puts pressure on considering anything other than profit.
  • Design guidelines need to be in place for urban design. They need to be more place specific than at present (i.e. move down to local level).

Last updated: 17 September 2007