CHB council facing $130,000 in prosecution costs

CHB District Council chief executive Monique Davidson said there were lessons to be learned from the council's recent prosecution for its wastewater. Photo Supplied

Hawke's Bay Regional Council's prosecution of the Central Hawke's Bay District Council over its Waipawa wastewater treatment plant is estimated to have cost the CHB council about $130,000 to date in lawyer and expert witness fees.

This was on top of $100,000 of work to be completed as per an enforcement order issued by the Environment Court.

In a paper to yesterday's CHB council finance and planning committee meeting, technical services manager Steve Thrush said a notice of prosecution was first filed by the regional council on November 30, 2016 for breaching the resource consent condition for E. coli levels in the treated wastewater discharged from the Waipawa treatment plant.

At an Environment Court hearing in Hastings on March 20, the CHB council pleaded guilty to the charge, and was convicted at a sentencing hearing on July 10.

At this hearing the regional council was awarded costs of $7500, and an enforcement order issued requiring a review of the treatment plant to be carried out by wastewater engineer John Crewford, and for the council to implement any recommendations coming out of the review.

The total cost of this review and any subsequent actions was capped at $100,000 which would be sourced from the existing wastewater renewal budget, and the reports were set to be submitted to the court on December 18 this year and September 28 next year.

Any extra work and costs arising from the review would be reported to the court, and the council also had to report on how it would find funds to carry out any extra work.

At this point, the council had still not received the enforcement order, Mr Thrush said.

"Once we get that we will know exactly what we are working with."

He added that he was still waiting to see whether insurance could cover the $130,000 prosecution costs.

Councillor David Tennent asked if there had been any discussions with the regional council about avoiding such court action in the future.

Chief executive Monique Davidson responded that both parties had accepted there were lessons to be learned from the situation.

"We now have two new chief executives and [Hawke's Bay Regional Council chief executive] James Palmer and myself have been working hard on building a strong relationship.

"In the last two weeks leading up to the prosecution both councils illustrated a collaborative working relationship and we can look back on the process and acknowledge different relationships can occur in the future while the regional council carries out its regulatory role."

Councillor Ian Sharp said that while it was disappointing to incur such large legal costs, it was hoped the improved relationship with the regulator would avoid such actions in the future.