Supplementary Agenda of Council Meeting

Council Meeting ITEM: 1.8

20 August 2019Attachment 1

Compliance monitoring

The results of compliance monitoring for the period 1 – 31 July 2019 (and year-to-date figures) are summarised in the following table and discussed below.

Classification	Total	Full compliance	Low risk non-compliance	Moderate non-compliance	Significant non-compliance	Not exercised during period
Air discharges	30	18	5	0	4	3
Coastal permit	65	51	3	6	1	4
Discharge permit	84	63	4	8	7	2
FDE - Discharge permit	31	18	0	6	7	0
FDE - Permitted activity	21	17	0	2	1	1
Land use consent	24	21	3	0	0	0
Water permit	181	119	36	13	0	13
Total	436	307	51	35	20	23
Percentage		70.4%	11.7%	8.0%	4.6%	5.3%
YTD	900	677	63	42	25	93
Percentage		75.2%	7.0%	4.7%	2.8%	10.3%

Coastal

The majority of consents monitored during the reporting period related to coastal discharges (treated municipal sewage, industrial, boat maintenance facilities), coastal structures and dredging.

Waste Management

· Eight incidents involving the discharge of hazardous substances and 30 enquiries regarding contaminated land were received and responded to.

· 750 kg of hazardous waste was disposed of during the month.

Water, Waste, Air and Land Use Compliance Monitoring

Heather Giles, Environmental Monitoring Officer – Waste Management, attended a Leadership Forum in Wellington. Heather will be putting together a presentation about the week’s activities and learnings.

The last day for Water Use Records returns was 31 July 2019. The water use monitoring staff are very busy processing returns and reminding consent holders of their requirements.

Farm dairy effluent (FDE) monitoring

FDE inspections commenced on 22 July 2019, with the first inspections being made to winter milking farms. A total of 829 farms will be visited by the FDE contractor or council staff prior to Christmas – this is 47 less farms than last year. To date about 8% of these have been visited and reported on. The results for consented and permitted activity farms are tabled below and compared with those for the same period last year. It is too early to draw any conclusions.

Consented FDE discharges

A total of 43 consented farms have been visited and reported on, which is about 7% of the total consented farms to be visited.

Full Compliance		Moderate Non-Compliance		Significant Non-Compliance
This Year	Last Year	This Year	Last Year	This Year	Last Year
26	50	10	22	7	18
61%	56%	23%	24%	16%	20%

Non-consented FDE discharges

A total of 25 non-consented farms have been visited and reported on, which is about 12% of the total non-consented farms to be visited.

Full Compliance		Moderate Non-Compliance		Significant Non-Compliance
This Year	Last Year	This Year	Last Year	This Year	Last Year
21	29	2	3	2	8
84%	72%	8%	8%	8%	20%

Environmental incidents

There were no incidents recorded during the reporting period that resulted in a significant environmental impact.

Enforcement

Abatement notices, infringement notices and formal warnings

The following enforcement actions were taken during the period:

	Infringement Notice		Abatement Notice		Warning and Letter		Total
Nature of Offence	No. Offences	No. Notices	No. Offences	No. Notices	No. Offences	No. Notices	No. Offences	No. Notices
Burning & smoke nuisance	0	0	5	6	0	0	5	6
Discharge to land	1	1	2	3	0	0	2	4
Earthworks/land use	0	0	3	3	0	0	3	3
Other air discharge	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	1
Sediment	2	2	1	1	0	0	2	3
Total	3	3	11	13	1	1	13	17

Other Enforcement

Dumping and burning of demolition waste, Kaikohe

Charges have been laid against two companies and one individual (associated with one of the companies) and a land owner for the dumping and burning of demolition waste near Kaikohe. One of the companies and the land owner have entered guilty pleas and are due to be sentenced on 15 August 2019 in the Kaikohe District Court. The other company has elected jury trial, with the trial likely to be in November 2019.

Enforcement Order – Paihia wastewater treatment plant

Following a pre-hearing conference/settlement conference held on 4 March 2019, the Environment Court issued Enforcement Orders against FNDC on 20 March 2019. The orders set out milestones to complete an upgraded WWTP. FNDC has met the first three milestones (notifying NRC and the Court of its resolution approving funding for the upgrade; providing the final design; and confirmation of commencement of works). The next milestone is due on 27 December 2019.

Farm dairy effluent – Waipū

Charges have been laid against a Waipū farmer for offending which occurred in July and December 2018. The offences related to discharges of untreated effluent from breakages in irrigation lines. The farm owner has a poor history of compliance with regional rules for animal effluent disposal. Guilty pleas to all charges were entered on 18 April 2019 and sentencing is scheduled for 14 August 2019 in the Whangārei District Court.

Farm dairy effluent – Maungakaramea

Charges have been laid against a farmer owner and his company, as well as the farm manager, for offences which occurred in September 2018. The farm has a poor history of compliance with regional rules for animal effluent disposal. Pleas have not yet been entered. The farm manager has requested a sentence indication hearing and the next court date is set for 14 August 2019.

Farm dairy effluent – Maromaku

Charges have been laid against a farm owner and his company, as well as the farm manager, for offences which occurred in September 2018. The farm owner has a poor history of compliance with regional rules for animal effluent disposal. The company has entered guilty pleas; the remaining parties have pleaded not guilty. The next court date is 14 August 2019.

Council Meeting ITEM: 1.8

20 August 2019Attachment 2

NATURAL RESOURCES’ CONTRIBUTION TO THE CEO AGENDA

- AUGUST 2019 MEETING

Hydrology

Rivers/Rain situation

· Rainfall along the east coast of Northland was below that expected for the month of July, based on long term rainfall medians. The lowest rainfall totals were around Whangārei and the Eastern Hills, while above median totals occurred in isolated areas such as the Aupōuri Peninsula, and the west coast south of Hokianga. All river flows remained below average for July, with most between 20-60%.

Hydrology Projects:

· Real time flow measuring units have been installed in the Victoria and Takahue rivers (Awanui Catchment). The instruments will assist capturing flow data that was traditionally collected by field staff, which can be difficult in these catchments when significant flood events block road access.

· Flow gaugings were carried out in the Awanui catchment during the severe weather event on 4 and 5 July.

· Upgrade work on the telemetry system continued with new Iris 270 data loggers installed at the Wilsons Dan rain gauge and Mangawhai medical centre bore. Dissolved Oxygen and barometric sensors have been installed in the Punakitere River.

Natural Resources Data

· Coordinating LAWA requests (key dates for delivery across May – September 2019):

o LAWA Groundwater Quality Module (EMaR) and National Environment Reporting (MfE) – currently reviewing the status of the data feeds and data provided. This module now Go-live is December 2019.

o LAWA Annual Refresh of Lakes, Rivers, Can I Swim water quality, and Water Quantity data. All raw data has been supplied for refresh at the end of June 2019. Council needs to confirm final datasets and load them for LAWA by August 2019 and Go-live in September 2019.

· Survey 123 for electronic data collection: good progress was made in July, in collaboration with Information Services and Technology team and Hilltop. Further work is required connecting the spatial and environmental databases before the final release to the field operation teams. Training sessions will be organised in August 2019 in preparation for the first trial run of the electronic forms.

· The Online Water Meter System is now live on NRC website. Consent holders can now enter their water use records via the NRC website. The records are saved automatically into the environmental database. Further discussions were held with other councils around a national QMS proposal, including setting up national data quality objectives.

Natural Resources Science

Freshwater quality/Freshwater ecology

· Northland Regional Council recently provided data to Cawthron as part of a national review of regional council and unitary authority monitoring of instream deposited sediment and habitat.

· Results for the 2019 macroinvertebrate surveys have been received from EOS Ecology and are being used to calculate this year’s macroinvertebrate indices.

· Some members of the NR Science team attended a workshop organised by the Planning and Policy team with key stakeholders around council’s NPS-FM implementation plan. The outcome of the workshop was overall positive with some relevant guidance provided by the expert panel commissioned for that purpose. Several NR Science work streams are part of the process and will require additional efforts from the team, especially within the next six months.

Air quality

· Ambient PM₁₀ monitoring results for June 2019 for the Whangārei and Marsden Point airsheds show that compliance was met with the National Environmental Standards for Air Quality (NESAQ). PM_2.5 monitoring results for Whangārei were within the Ambient Air Quality Guideline value.

· PM₁₀ monitoring in Kawakawa started from 22 June 2019. Results for the month were within the NESAQ.

· Energy and Technical Services (Energy TS) Limited have completed data entry of council’s fuel consumption, electricity usage, air travel and waste generation to their
e-Bench software to track council’s carbon emissions. Several council staff now have access to the e-Bench website. A sample graph is presented below to show council’s CO₂e (carbon dioxide equivalent) production. The below graph shows a slight increase in CO₂e production in 2019 compared to 2018. The CO₂e in May 2019 was noticeably high because of increased air travel in May. Data for June 2019 is not yet complete.

Groundwater

· Regional groundwater dynamics and hydrochemical evolution groundwater age information is now available for the Northland region. A project scope is being prepared to review this data and report on regional groundwater dynamics and hydrochemical evolution. This report will complement the physiographic mapping and assist with informing future land management mitigation measures.

· National bore log database functional requirements: Northland Regional Council staff are involved in a national project to identify functional requirements for a national bore log database. The database will promote consistent storage and reporting of valuable bore information. The project is a collaborative initiative being coordinated by ReCoCo (Regional Council Collaboration).

Coastal/Water Quality Field Operations

The majority of consents monitored during the reporting period related to coastal discharges (treated municipal sewage, industrial, boat maintenance facilities), coastal structures inspections, and dredging.

Coastal water quality sampling of the Whangārei, Bay of Islands and Kaipara harbours and southern estuaries (Mangawhai, Waipū and Ruakākā) was carried out. The monthly river water quality, priority catchment, and periphyton sampling programmes were undertaken.

The quarterly coastal water quality buoy deployments at Hātea River and Waitangi estuary were undertaken.

Our quarterly coastal litter monitoring programme was undertaken at Pohe Island, Whangārei Harbour. The results showed a large increase in litter recorded in the last quarter.