Conditional Taipa consents granted
Independent commissioners for the Northland Regional Council Rob Lieffering and Antoine Coffin have granted new resource consents for the Far North District Council’s wastewater treatment plant at Taipa, following a hearing more than a decade after they were first applied for.
The commissioners heard the applications over three days at Taipa in June, their just-released decision, running to more than 60 pages, granting the three consents required for eight years, subject to a raft of conditions.
The decision noted that the application for the consents was lodged in May 2008, six months before the existing consents expired, meaning the council could continue to operate the plant under the expired consent conditions until the application for new consents was determined. That application was publicly notified in 2010, attracting more than 50 submissions, all but three effectively opposed to the application.
The commissioners have granted consents to discharge treated municipal wastewater to an unnamed tributary of Te Wai o Te Parapara (Parapara Stream), up to a maximum rate of 790 cubic metres per day, based on a rolling 30-day average dry weather flow, to discharge contaminants to land from the base of a wastewater treatment system, an to discharge contaminants to air (primarily odour).
The decision gives the FNDC until October 1 to establish a working group to ‘provide for the involvement of Nga¯ti Kahu’ in a range of matters related to the consent, including the development of a quantitative microbiological risk assessment (QMRA). Group members must include three tangata whenuaappointed members of Nga¯ti Kahu and two senior officers appointed by the FNDC, the latter supported by an independent specialist wastewater engineer.
The QRMA is to look at what risks treated wastewater from the plant poses to human health, ‘as affected by their contact with water in, and consumption of aquatic species’ from the Awapoko River and estuary, downstream from the discharge point.
Depending on the results of the QRMA, consent conditions include a variety of other followup conditions/actions the FNDC must then take. It has also been given until September 1 next year to provide to the Northland Regional Council a report examining options for disposing treated wastewater from the plant.
That report is to include a recommendation as to which disposal option is considered to be the best practicable option, must include the option of disposing the treated wastewater to land, and must identify the costs and benefits of all practicable disposal options.
If that report determines that a change to land disposal is the best practicable option, the council will have until July 1, 2021, to advise the NRC if it is committing to land disposal. (The delay acknowledges that the FNDC may need to consult with the community and associated funding requirements may need to go through/be approved via its long-term or annual plan processes.)
If the council does ultimately commit to a land-based disposal system (the preference of submitters), a new system must be commissioned by September 2025. The full decision, which is subject to appeal for 15 working days, can be seen at www.nrc.govt.nz/ consentdecisions.