Abatement notice for premature earthworks

Tararua District Council has been ordered to stop work on a wetlands project after starting construction without meeting resource consent conditions.

The council had been doing earthworks to build a wetlands near its Eketāhuna wastewater treatment plant. The wetlands are north of the treatment plant, on the eastern bank of the Makakahi River next to the Eketāhuna Golf Club.

But in March, Horizons Regional Council issued Tararua District Council two abatement notices about the earthworks. The district council hadn’t met the conditions of the consent before starting work, which it put down to management oversight.

Horizons regulatory manager Greg Bevin said, following an Environment Court decision, the district council was issued new resource consents for the discharge of treated wastewater into the river As part of the consents, the district council had to build a wetland for further treatment of treated wastewater before it was discharged into the river.

Horizons inspected the site in September and December. A number of consent conditions had not been met

Bevin said the district council did not notify Horizons five days before starting the work; did not do a pre-construction site meeting with various required parties; did not provide Horizons with a design and specifications for some of the earthworks; did not submit an erosion and sediment control plan 20 working days before starting work; and started without a certified erosion and sediment control plan.

The first abatement notice was to stop “all unauthorised large-scale land disturbance, including earthworks” and the associated discharge of sediment. The second was to do an ecological and cultural health review of the river by the wetland development, with monitoring to be done by Ngāti Kahungunu ki Tāmaki nui-a-Rua and Rangitāne o Tāmaki nui-ā-rua.

Tararua District Council chief executive Bryan Nicholson said the consent conditions were not met because of a “management oversight”. “We are working together with colleagues at Horizons Regional Council and both iwi partners to address the concerns.”

He said a lot of work was done to prepare for the project but the council did not submit an erosion and sediment plan on time. It would not challenge the notice. Discharge from the plant had continued uninterrupted as the wetlands were not yet part of the treatment process.

Nicholson said a cultural impact assessment by local iwi in December, which evaluated any changes in the health of the river compared with a 2018 assessment, showed “positive outcomes in terms of the mauri (life force) and health of the tipuna awa”.

Work on the wetlands would restart once an amended plan was approved.