Editorial: Focus should be on discharge being compliant

Andrew Austin, Editor of Hawke's Bay Today.

One could forgive ratepayers of Central Hawke's Bay for feeling a little aggrieved at the money their district council has spent as a result of it being prosecuted over its Waipawa wastewater treatment plant.

The CHB District Council's finance and planning committee heard yesterday that the Hawke's Bay Regional Council's prosecution of the district council was 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.

This is a large amount of money, particularly for a council with a fairly small ratepayer base.

The regional council prosecuted the district council for breaching the resource consent condition for E. coli levels in the treated wastewater discharged from the Waipawa plant.

The council pleaded guilty at an Environment Court hearing.

Interestingly new council chief executive Monique Davidson was asked if there had been any discussion with the regional council about avoiding such court action in the future.

She 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," she said.

That sounds fair enough and another point to make is that this issue has been largely inherited by this new CHB council.

However, focusing on building a strong relationship with the regional council to avoid being prosecuted in future is missing the point a little.

There is a straightforward way the council can avoid being prosecuted, simply ensure that the wastewater discharged from the plant complies with all regulations and standards all the time.