Buller District Council response to West Coast Regional Council Wastewater Treatment Plants report

Buller District Council (BDC) acknowledges the recent release of the West Coast Regional Council’s (WCRC) review of the regional Wastewater Treatment Plant consent compliance report for the coast’s three Territorial Authorities, being Buller, Grey and Westland District Councils.

The report reflects the ongoing work being undertaken by Buller District Council (BDC) to understand and improve its compliance across these consents, and all other consents it holds.

While full compliance with all existing resource consents and their conditions is expected, the report follows a significant period where the compliance issues described were not well understood or well-managed by both the regional and district councils.

Group Manager Infrastructure Services Anthony Blom says: “The West Coast Regional Council issued a notification to the three Territorial Authorities in July 2024, announcing that it was undertaking enhancements to its monitoring functions under the Resource Management Act 1991.

“A comparatively relaxed period ended in 2024, since then BDC has met regularly with WCRC on specific improvement projects and implemented several operational changes to work towards achieving the required level of compliance.”

These include compilation of a resource consent condition database, along with the current compliance status of each, prioritisation of specific problem areas, and the development of prioritised action plans for these issues.

“Funding has been sought and action plans developed and implemented for major projects, including the Westport and Carters Beach wastewater and stormwater separation project which is currently underway; the Reefton wastewater study, which is planned for Long-Term Plan year 2026-27; and the Little Wanganui Wastewater Treatment Plant improvements, which are also planned for Long-Term Plan year 2026-27,” details Mr Blom.

“Upgrades to the Westport Wastewater Treatment Plant have also begun, utilising Infrastructure Acceleration Fund (IAF) funding.”

BDC has been working with WCRC to better understand the approach the regional council is currently taking to enforcing compliance.

Council also has concerns with the detail of parts of the WCRC report – in particular WCRC references “trade waste investigation of the Tallies (sic) processing plant in 2025 has identified the annual Hoki catch as the likely cause of the breakdowns”.

BDC would like to clarify that no such conclusion was made, and the statement that Talley’s was the ‘likely’ cause is speculation, not fact. WCRC were notified about this (and other) errors in their report prior to publication. 

Mr Blom concludes: “BDC has also engaged external support to hasten our understanding of the full cost of compliance.

“This work will feed into the upcoming Annual Plan and Long-Term Plan processes, so the community can be better informed and understand the true cost of compliance.”

-ENDS

For further information please contact:
Community Engagement Team 
Buller District Council
Media.Enquiries@bdc.govt.nz

Disclaimer
The information in this media release was correct at time of publication. Changes in circumstances after the time of publication may impact on the accuracy of the information