![]() ![]() Out of the council’s 18 discharge consents, only one was judged as fully compliant, while a staggering half of consents have been breached significantly. ![]() However, a most shocking state of affairs has been spotlighted in the Clutha District. Queenstown-Lakes District had two fully compliant consents with three significantly breaching compliance, while the Central Otago District Council was fully compliant in meeting two consents but significantly non-compliant with another two. None of the Waitaki District Council’s eight consents were fully compliant, with four moderately and two significantly non-compliant. Of its 13 wastewater discharge consents, there had only been one significant breach of compliance, while six consents were fully complied with. The Dunedin City Council has been the best performing of the five councils. The report snapshot highlights that all five Otago councils have had at least one significant compliance breach when it comes to operating their sewage plants within the rules in the past year. The results in the Otago Regional Council report should make some at the territorial councils around the South hang their heads in shame. In fact, "how badly" is much more accurate. PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH/GETTY IMAGESIt turns out "how well" are not the right words to use. This week we found out just how well our southern city and district councils have been doing when it comes to managing their populations’ sewage. Regional councils have the job, on our behalf, of safeguarding the teetering environment through monitoring and compliance with strict discharge rules. Then there are also the purely human-made environmental stressors, such as the accelerating degradation and contamination of waterways and freshwater supplies, the polluted and overworked soils, the poor winter air quality, and the toxic waste dumped around the countryside and now leaching into the ground. ![]() In New Zealand we are threatened by the events which would still happen regardless of our existence, such as major earthquakes and other cataclysmic and erosional changes to the land itself, as well as flooding, storms, El Ninos and La Ninas to name a few.īut we are also jeopardised by natural phenomena which have become worse as a result of our mismanagement of the environment and most notably our increasing greenhouse gas emissions, including those above, especially floods and severe weather, erosion and sea-level rise. Yet we know that what those people respect us for here is under threat, that the already loudly creaking clean, green image is an eroding veneer. New Zealand and its myriad wonders are still looked upon with awe by millions living in more polluted, congested countries. We have many wonderful assets and advantages to nurture, and ensuring our environment is as clean, healthy and attractive as it can be for our children and grandchildren must be top, or near the top, of the national priority list.īut there are many hurdles in front of us when it comes to achieving the dream of making things better, or of even trying to halt the steady decline and abuse of our natural environments. Few could doubt that New Zealand is a beautiful but challenging place in which to live. ![]()
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