Nelson local government meeting
Wednesday 8 November
National environmental standards
Contaminated land
- Sheep dip sites are an issue around Nelson/Tasman.
- Is MfE talking to Meat and Wool New Zealand about “cleans streams” type work?
- Setting a trigger level associated with old pesticides on former orchards should be a high priority.
Septic tanks
- Why a standard only on septic tanks and not aerated systems? Will the standard be related to the upgraded ANZ standards 15/47?
- The National Environmental Standard needs to cover the design, installation and maintenance or septic tanks.
Water
- Are ANZAC drinking water guidelines being reviewed?
- A water NES is not favoured as it would be too prescriptive. NPS type mechanisms are preferred.
- Drinking water sources are going to be difficult to measure.
- The Council would face huge financial liability if it needs to consider all rural suppliers and users of water.
- What if water abstracters decide that they cannot afford to treat water? How will this work for dairy farmers in Collingwood for example?
General comments
- Is there a 0800 number for standards? Any standards that are going to be introduced should have a 0800 number.
- Plan effectiveness monitoring is needed. RPM Groups
- MfE should assist with capacity building to improve technical and planning expertise. Local knowledge should be shared throughout the country.
- Core environmental good practice projects should be funded through MfE or MAF (i.e. the Sustainable Management Fund or the Sustainable Farming Fund) rather than through Envirolink.
- Many people are still not aware of various schemes such as Energy Smart.
- Telecommunications is still a contentious issue around Kaiteri. Tasman District Council is about to change plan rules regarding telecommunications. This has been through a number of appeals.
Air quality
- Tasman District Council has committed funding to implementing the air quality standards yet Richmond, a problem area, has small rating base and a subsidy across the entire district cannot be justified. TDC is looking making the sale of houses the point where home heating air quality compliance is addressed.
- Nelson City Council really appreciated the grant for two air quality monitoring stations. ECAN put bid to Envirolink for funding for air quality monitoring stations.
Water
General comments
- Ongoing and long-term capacity is needed in central government, particularly technical expertise.
- There is an absence of national direction. There is a need for broad outcomes, underlying principles and a menu of tools rather than trying to manage specific issues across disparate catchments.
- Need for knowledge transfer and support for practitioners across the country. It would be useful to have guidance on the different ways in which forestry and riparian areas are treated across the country, including in planning documents.
Climate change
Adaptation and mitigation
- The impacts of climate change are showing up in Picton and other urbanised areas, particularly in regard to extreme rain and storm water capacity.
- Information in the Red Book (the Land Use Planning for Hazardous Facilities guide) is not sufficient to persuade councillors to take action. Information is needed on the probability, frequency, duration and effects on the ground for the community of climate change and related events.
- The local peak oil awareness group are looking at reframing themselves and aligning with the issue of climate change.
- The issue of sea level rise is compounded by storm surges.
Education and awareness
- Planning for climate change is an issue that many councils struggle with. What is council’s role in comparison to central government? Climate change needs to be integrated into the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement. Regional information is important for the Nelson region. Creating awareness politically and publicly is very important.
- The documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” and the Stern report are very important levers.
- Awareness and sense of urgency a minority, but climate change issues are not on the radar of others.
- People need ‘real world’ translations of information. People are disempowered if they cannot understand the information.
- Real impacts should be illustrated e.g. what will 50 cm sea level rise mean when combined with a King Tide.
- Clarity is needed around the language describing the impacts of climate change. Saying an event is a 1 in 100 year occurrence is meaningless. Perhaps a shift to saying there is a ‘percentage chance’ of something happen in the next X or Y years would be more useful.
- Much stronger guidance is needed from government on what emphasis to place on reports and technical information.
- Councils need to be able to reach defendable decisions on climate change and related issues. Good information and figures are needed.
- A collective methodology and best practice strategy need to be developed.
- Often people cannot imagine what the future might look like. People need to be helped to appreciate the possibilities and visualise what climate change means. There will be no change if people cannot grasp the future possibilities.
- David Suzuki’s movie on connectivity should be in every secondary school. If we can explain climate change simply enough for kids to understand, we can get the message across to everyone.
General comments
- The problem with the RMA is that councils have too much discretion. Technical solutions need to be removed from public process.
- Local politicians are vulnerable to public opinion and need to be buffered from it when the issue is one of national importance.
- A discussion is needed on who can best do what in terms of policy and climate change decisions e.g. central government, local government, unitary authorities etc.
- If there is a requirement for local government to act then please follow that with funding.
- Climate change will hit hardest with economics impacts.
- Even if council staff accept climate change, there is a huge stumbling block if elected representatives do not buy in.
- Behaviour change in life styles and land use practices is very important. This needs to be communicated in much clearer terms.
- We must not leave the next generation a culture of despair. We need to start acting now, not leaving it to next generation.
- We need to change our cultural attitude.
Environmental reporting
General comments
- What is the relationship between the linked indicators project and core indicators? Local government do not want to report twice.
- It is important to measure urban land cover and loss of vegetation in urban areas. Add in “green GDP”.
- It is important to remember the relevance of gathering data in each region. There is a lack of capacity for monitoring, including monitoring for permitted activities.
- Who is the audience for the air quality website and the map of airsheds?
- The airshed mapping is liked. The approach should be used more.
- Add value by linking the state of the environment report to other parts of MfE website.
- Include information on policy and other responses in the reporting matrix.
- Information on ecological footprints needs to be provided at a local level.
- MfE requires a far better website.
Last updated: 27 February 2008
