Items of interest from this week's meeting of two key Council committees, Consents & Regulatory, and Policy & Planning: The Consents & Regulatory Committee and Policy & Planning Committee generally meet every six weeks, on the same day. They are made up of Regional Councillors and external members. Meetings calendar Committee memberships Good progress on improvementsThe Council’s monitoring shows a clear pattern of improving trends in the region’s freshwater quality, albeit with variations from
biogas from its covered effluent pond to generate electricity for the site, and takes food waste from local industry to process into stockfeed. Now it has installed new cables and pumping equipment so it can dispose of nearly half of its treated effluent to land, and new infrastructure to allow better sampling of the pond. Its approach to environmental management was rewarded in 2010 with a Taranaki Regional Council Environmental Award. Monitoring reflects poorer summerMonitoring of popular
programmes, the Policy and Planning Committee was told. The stocktake, detailed in a report commissioned by Te Wai Māori Trust, also confirms some findings made by the Council, and notes that this region offers valuable fisheries data due to the Council’s existing monitoring programmes. The report will be used as the Council develops new monitoring programmes in collaboration with Māori, and will also feed into the review of the Regional Freshwater and Land Plan. New pest blueprint gets all-clearTaranaki
will move to a reduced timetable in coming weeks as drivers and staff become unwell or are required to self-isolate. Ms Hiestand says maintaining accessibility around the region, while keeping communities safe is a top priority for the Regional Council. “To minimise the impact of a reduced timetable as much as possible, we will prioritise services used by school children and frequencies will be reduced outside of peak times. “We are doing our best to maintain community access to essential bus
system for monitoring consent holders and enforcing compliance with consent conditions and Regional Plan provisions, the Consents & Regulatory Committee was told. The analysis was carried out at the request of regional councils and looked at their performance nationwide. Taranaki has long had a comprehensive monitoring and compliance system and it continues to be second to none, the Committee was told. It covers all sectors, with most attention on higher-risk activities, and is resourced on a
2015-2016 (290 KB pdf) Annual report 2014-2015 (360 KB pdf) Annual report 2013-2014 (375 KB pdf) Annual report 2012-2013 (364 KB pdf) NPDC Eltham central landfill (baseline monitoring) A site at Rotokare Rd, 2km south of Eltham, has been proposed as the site for a regional landfill facility, when one becomes necessary. Consent conditions include baseline monitoring of surface water and groundwater for comparison with data gathered after landfill operations begin. Eltham Central Landfill Annual Report
Items of interest from today's meetings of the Taranaki Regional Council's two key committees, Consents & Regulatory, and Policy & Planning: Coastal Plan in clearer sightThe review of the Regional Coastal Plan is nearing completion and a proposed new document will formally notified for public consultation early in the New Year, the Policy and Planning Committee was told. As part of the review, the Council sought comments and feedback on an initial draft, and officers have been working through
review of the Regional Freshwater Plan, the Committee was told. Overseer was never designed or intended for use as a regulatory tool, but solely for use at individual farm-management level. Seven regional councils currently make use of Overseer as a regulatory tool in some way. TRC is among the nine which do not use it. PCE's report on Overseer Nutrient Management Tools/Models (2015 report for TRC) Value of native bush recognisedA fifth of the privately owned native bush in Taranaki now falls under
The Council responds 24/7 to environmental incidents to investigate, and clean up pollution and take enforcement action if necessary. To report a pollution incident, call the Council's environmental hotline, 0800 736 222 - switchboard is open 24/7. Environmental incidents include spills, accidents and situations where an industry or resource consent holder does not meet consent conditions or regional plan rules. More than half of the incidents that the Council investigates are reported by the