Standard is lifting, still a lack of independence

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

In reply to Amber Dunn, “Local authority doing job well”.

Kia ora Amber. You are right, Council did need to repair the cracked sewerage pipe. They have sought to do it quickly and responsibly. The issue I raised was that the community needs confidence both that the discharge on to the beach is safe and that council’s environmental regulatory function is working. That wasn’t clear from how Council initially approached this.

It’s encouraging to see Council’s Lifelines have informed Council’s monitoring and enforcement team, moved the discharge date from the surfing comp dates and are to now undertake water quality testing before and after the discharge. That helps provide confidence. Thank you.

It’s also worth remembering the discharge goes through tertiary treatment to a much higher water quality standard before it lands in our bay. Council has done great work to lift the standard.

I remain concerned about the lack of independence of Council’s environmental regulatory function and that its operation is impacted by political pressures. That concern has arisen from years of Council not monitoring and enforcing forest harvest consents and the damage that ensued.

It was reinforced by the lack of action on our rivers.

Our bigger water quality issues now are the massive amounts of silt and woody debris flowing down our rivers into the coastal environment, the heavy rain sewage discharges into the river, and the cumulative impact of fertiliser and spray intensification leaching into our rivers.

Council is conflicted. We need an independent body to set future land use rules and to enforce environmental conditions.

The price of political and commercial pressure, and of mistakes, is too high.

John Kape