Porirua Wastewater Treatment Plant resource consent renewed for 18 years

Tuesday, 18 July 2023

The treatment plant in Tītahi Bay can discharge more treated and disinfected wastewater into the sea under the new consent, which has been renewed for 18 years.

Porirua’s wastewater treatment plant can discharge more treated and disinfected wastewater into the sea under a new 18-year consent, which a community group calls “a licence to pollute”.

Mayor Anita Baker said the new consent was a “fair balance” between the community’s concerns and the council’s priorities.

Porirua City Council applied to renew the plant’s coastal and air discharge resource consents for 20 years, months before they expired in 2020. Greater Wellington Regional Council’s decision to renew the resource consent by 18 years was made by a panel of four commissioners on June 21.

Some submissions wanted a shorter consent duration from five to 10 years because of the plant’s past failings that led to undisinfected wastewater being discharged into the sea at Rukutane Point.

Under the new consent, the treatment plant can discharge more treated and disinfected wastewater into the sea, from an average of 24,000 cubic metres per day to 38,016 cubic metres. It also brought in new conditions to set up a dedicated web page for people to access ecological survey reports and other related information.

The commissioners received more than 1370 submissions on the application, with all but 20 opposing it. Some submissions wanted a shorter consent duration from five to 10 years because of the plant’s past failings that led to undisinfected wastewater being discharged into the sea at Rukutane Point.

Michelle Laurenson of the Your Bay Your Say group which campaigned against the application said the renewed resource consent was “a licence to pollute”. (File photo)

They wrote in their decision that subject to the conditions, the adverse environmental effects of air and wastewater discharge from the treatment plant would be “no more than minor” on public health, “less than minor” on marine ecology and “minor” on coastal and marine recreation.

Granting an 18-year-long consent was appropriate because it reflected factors including “the desire of … the wider community for a duration less than 20 years” and the work the council put in since 2016 to improve the plant’s technology and monitoring.

“The plant is critical to the maintenance of public health and providing for growth and development in and around Porirua,” the commissioners concluded.

Baker said she was “pleased” that the plant’s resource consent was renewed.

“It’s taken such a long time,” she said. “I think it’s fair to the community as well [and] everybody’s been listened to.”

Michelle Laurenson, whose group Your Bay Your Say wanted the consent to be declined or limited to up to five years and subject to a “major redesign” of the treatment plant, called the decision “a licence to pollute”. However, they won’t appeal it at the Environment Court.

“We don’t have the resources [for an appeal] … if we appeal it, it would hold everything up,” she said. “We don’t want to waste thousands of ratepayers’ money on something which could be put to better use.”