Community to have their say on Westport’s wastewater and stormwater separation as part of the Draft Long-Term Plan 2025-2034 consultation
Buller District Council will consult with the community about the options for separating Westport’s stormwater and wastewater as part of the Draft Long-Term Plan 2025-2034 consultation.
Group Manager Infrastructure Services Anthony Blom explains: “Currently, council is renewing its resource consent for wastewater pump station overflows, which expired in July 2023.
A new consent was applied for in April 2023, after which the West Coast Regional Council (WCRC) requested additional information. This resulted in a set of actions that Buller District Council must undertake before, during, and after the consent’s approval to address the requests of WCRC and iwi.
Under the Resource Management Act, council must have resource consents to discharge treated wastewater into any river or other water body. Resource consents outline the requirements that must be met. The previous resource consent allowed council to release wastewater overflows for 263 hours in any calendar year which is currently being exceed every year.
A big contributing factor to exceeding the approved number of hours are private stormwater cross-connections discharging into Westport’s wastewater network.
Private cross-connections are where stormwater enters the wastewater network through rainwater downpipes discharging into gully traps or directly piped into wastewater pipes. This combined discharge needs to be eliminated.
At least six hundred and eleven properties with cross-connections have been identified by smoke testing, which involves non-toxic smoke being pumped into a section of the wastewater network. If smoke is seen exiting anywhere other than a wastewater vent, it shows there is a cross connection on the property.
For the consent to be approved, key stakeholders, including Ngāti Waewae and the WCRC have emphasised the need to significantly reduce the volume and duration of overflows caused by these cross-connections. Without the new consent, council cannot discharge Westport’s wastewater overflows into the Buller and Orowaiti Rivers in future.
To address wastewater inflow from public property, council has made progress in installing new backflow prevention devices to stop river water backflowing into pump stations and has separated sixty network cross-connections in the streets, with completion expected by June 2025.
Mr Blom highlights: “We have done as much as possible to limit wastewater inflow from public spaces. However, the impact of this work is minimal when compared to the volume of wastewater discharged from the 611 private property cross-connections in Westport.”
To achieve a noticeable reduction in overflows, council will need to target these private properties and require separation of their wastewater and stormwater systems.
Mr Blom emphasises: “Systematically removing these cross-connections will require substantial financial investment. Key stakeholders, including Ngāti Waewae and WCRC, have a clear expectation that council must make substantial improvements. Feedback from Ngāti Waewae emphasises the importance of achieving significant, steady reductions in overflows, with the long-term goal of limiting overflows to high-rainfall events only.”
The five options presented to council to address the issue were to do nothing, do the minimum through voluntary compliance, enforce compliance through regulatory actions, or resolve the issue through a council-led rates-funded work program. This would be funded either through targeted or through general rates.
Mr Blom outlines: “In any decision around approaching this issue, compliance with resource consent conditions must be prioritised. The options of doing nothing, voluntary compliance and regulatory enforcement after two years will not satisfy Ngāti Waewae and WCRC's expectations and will not enable us to obtain a new resource consent.”
This leaves only two feasible options: funding the separation of these cross connections through a targeted rate for properties in Westport and Carters Beach that are connected to the Westport wastewater network or financing the work through a general rate collected from all property owners in Buller.
Hence, we are asking the community for feedback on these two options as part of the Long-Term Plan consultation.”
The rates-funded option, covered by general rates over 30 years would require the general rate to lift by 2.65%. This would be indicative rates increase of $62.45 per property. Distributing the same costs across properties in Westport and Cartes Beach through a targeted rate would see an increase by 12.54% in the targeted rate (approx. $162 per property).
Council approved to include the Westport stormwater wastewater separation as a key consultation topic with the two options to either fund it through a targeted or a general rate in the Draft Long-Term Plan 2025-2034 consultation in late April 2025.
Mr Bloom explains: “Providing the community with these two viable options, gives people a choice between two feasible options that fulfil the requirements for the renewal of the Westport Wastewater resource consent.”
This will also show a commitment to resolving the current Resource Management Act breach and limit the risk of penalties to Council. The Council-delivered scenarios provide a planned, deliverable pathway to compliance and improved network performance.
The community can stay informed via council’s community engagement hub Let’s talk Buller or information available at Council’s libraries and service centres in Westport and Reefton, the Karamea Information Centre, and the Northern Buller Community Resource Centre.
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For further information, please contact:
Community Engagement Team
Buller District Council
Media.Enquiries@bdc.govt.nz