Latest news with #LocalGovernment(WaterServices)Bill
Otago Daily Times
26-05-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Council to decide on setting up water CCO
Queenstown Lakes households may face higher water charges for the next nine years if the district council agrees to establish a new council-controlled organisation to deal with Three Waters. However, council property and infrastructure general manager Tony Avery said, based on modelling, the proposed water services council-controlled organisation (WSCCO) would lead in the long term to "lower charges on average" for the 10 years from 2034. At a full council meeting in Arrowtown on Thursday, elected members will be asked to agree to consult on the proposal to establish the WSCCO. If they agree, consultation would begin on Monday. Mr Avery said as part of central government's Local Water Done Well Plan, to address New Zealand's water infrastructure challenges, the council had carefully assessed options for the future delivery of water services. The other shortlisted option evaluated was for the council to continue to deliver water services in-house, which would be subject to the Commerce Commission's regulatory requirements. Mr Avery said the council needed to be confident the model chosen would be capable of delivering financially sustainable water services to meet the increased financial requirements in legislation intended to be passed by central government. "Under all scenarios, including council's current long-term plan, water charges are projected to increase substantially." If agreed, the WSCCO would manage and deliver drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services in the district, and own the council's current water assets and their associated debt and liabilities. The proposed organisation would operate independently from the council. The Local Water Done Well reforms are underpinned by the Local Government (Water Services) Bill, expected to come into force later this year, which will require councils to transition to a separation of water charges from their general rates. At a workshop early this month, council strategy and reform manager Pennie Pearce told councillors the internal assessment found the district's households would face slightly cheaper annual Three Waters charges for the first 10 years under the in-house model, but those costs were projected to be lower under a CCO after that. — APL
Scoop
09-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
South Wairarapa Council Puts Its Faith In Wai+T Water Model
South Wairarapa is the first council to take the plunge into a proposed Wairarapa-Tararua water services entity, locking it in as its preferred option. All eyes are now on partner councils Masterton, Carterton, and Tararua to see whether they too will lock in the option. South Wairarapa deputy mayor Melissa Sadler-Futter said Local Water Done Well reform was a huge piece of work for the council and community. 'The next piece of action we will watch very carefully are the votes of our neighbours over the coming weeks.' South Wairarapa councillors were unanimously in favour of progressing the Wairarapa-Tararua council-controlled organisation, but this united front was unlikely to be seen at the table in Masterton where concerns around price standardisation were still being raised. Without standardisation, the Wairarapa-Tararua option was the cheapest for Masterton customers. With standardisation, it was more expensive than the 'Masterton-only' option. Although price standardisation was not a requirement of Local Water Done Well, some Masterton councillors have previously questioned what measures would be put in place to prevent it once the new entity was set up and whether these could be overridden by the entity's directors or the Commerce Commission. The Local Government (Water Services) Bill said councils can provide a statement of expectations to the water services entity, but 'the statement of expectations must not include any requirements or expectations that would compromise that financial independence'. It further said that 'if a water organisation receives a statement of expectations that is inconsistent with a direction or requirement imposed by a regulator, the regulatory direction or requirement prevails to the extent of the inconsistency.' The Commerce Commission, which would be the regulator, said it would be able to 'consider whether prices are efficient – for example, whether they appropriately signal the cost of service and support efficient demand management'. 'Generally, setting prices at a level that reflects local network costs is more efficient than harmonising prices across a water organisation. 'Once the Local Government (Water Services) Bill has been finalised and enacted the Commission will be able to make related decisions.' The Commerce Commission's water implementation director presented to Masterton District Council in a closed workshop on Tuesday. Price harmonisation was one of the topics covered. A fact sheet from the Department of Internal Affairs said price harmonisation and cross-subsidisation was not a requirement of Local Water Done Well. 'Concerns about potential cross-subsidisation of neighbouring councils' infrastructure, and harmonisation of pricing for consumers, should not be barrier to councils' discussions about joint arrangements,' the document said. 'Councils entering multi-council arrangements will have a lot of flexibility in deciding among themselves if, when, and to what extent prices are harmonised across districts, services, or groups of consumers. 'They may choose to begin price harmonisations immediately, on an accelerated path, or allow prices to align naturally over time as infrastructure needs are addressed, considering the specific infrastructure and service needs of different groups and areas.' Masterton and Carterton had hearings scheduled for next week and deliberations scheduled for the week after. Tararua would lock in its option on June 11. Each council must submit its Water Service Delivery Plans to the Department of Internal Affairs by September 3 and must demonstrate financial sustainability.
Otago Daily Times
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
Fears waterways at risk from wastewater plans
A government plan for national wastewater disposal standards is being met with local concern it could harm waterways. The plan, proposed in a Water Services Authority — Taumata Arowai consultation that ended yesterday, could end regional councils' ability to issue disposal consents with higher standards that are considerate of local environmental impacts. An official response from the Otago Regional Council is expected to flag that the plan risks a "one-size-fits-all approach". A draft response from the Dunedin City Council, which has been given an extension to May 1 to respond, has expressed concern that resource management instruments, prepared with mana whenua and communities, would be "over-ridden" and result in a "more permissive" approach to discharges to water rather than land. There needed to be a "backstop" opportunity for community engagement, it said. The Environmental Law Initiative (ELI), a charity run by environmental lawyers, said the proposed standards risked further decades of sub-standard wastewater disposal to water bodies. The charity flagged the Local Government (Water Services) Bill, which is progressing concurrent to the development of the standards, would give the power to set the standards to ministers rather than Taumata Arowai. ELI legal adviser Reto Blattner de-Vries described the proposed changes as having "massive implications" that would "entrench" lower-cost wastewater treatment plants that would be given 35-year consents. The changes would "allow councils to put their hands up and absolve themselves from pursuing culturally-appropriate discharge solutions which differ from the status quo, such as changing a discharge to water to a land-based discharge." Councils would not be able to decline an application for a discharge consent for a wastewater treatment plant that met the standards even if it contributed to various adverse effects listed in s107 of the Resource Management Act, he said. "A proposal of this gravity should be highlighted more by government ... The proposals take away localised discretion by councils which will mean councils won't have incentives to work with communities to find local solutions." ORC deputy chairman Cr Lloyd McCall said the ORC had submitted a comprehensive submission on the proposed wastewater standards and councillors had been given opportunity to input. The submission had, overall, supported a drive for efficiency in dealing with wastewater, but also outlined concerns around the protection of coastal and freshwater environments. "A proposed definition of pristine in its current form would not protect our highly valued lakes and their tributaries from degradation. The submission highlights this unintended consequence of a one-size-fits-all approach to water quality expectations." He said there was a need for rationalisation of wastewater management and regulation and it was also "essential that there is the ability for significant local community input into the receiving environment's water quality visions and outcomes." Cr Alan Somerville said: "The whole drive is to come up with standardised solutions that don't take into account environmental conditions and community aspirations for environmental protection. "This doesn't allow for particular local circumstances." He called for consideration of disposal to land, as a more mana whenua culturally appropriate response, and an end to an acceptance that wastewater could be dumped in the ocean without treatment if there was an overflow situation. The DCC has four resource consents that allow it to discharge wastewater overflows to freshwater and the ocean. Overflows can occur when wastewater pipes get inundated with stormwater. In South Dunedin, overflows have been channelled down a pipe called the "contamination vector" leading into the harbour and have sometimes flowed out on to Surrey St. Cr Andrew Noone said the government needed to now "set the bar high enough to ensure it was environmentally sustainable and doesn't cause greater degradation than we have currently got".
Scoop
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Council Submission Raises Concerns Over Losses In Water Quality
A Waikato Regional Council submission has raised concerns of potential losses in water quality in the region. The council's submission is in response to proposed wastewater environmental performance standards stemming from the Local Government (Water Services) Bill. Taumata Arowai is consulting on the initial wastewater standards which regional councils will be required to implement through resource consent conditions, without making them stricter or more lenient, councillors heard at the April meeting of the Strategy and Policy Committee. The council's submission advised that while the proposed standards are expected to enhance environmental outcomes and improve efficiencies, they conflict with current council initiatives to improve water quality. Committee chair Warren Maher said the council has been systematically strengthening the limits of resource consents over time to improve water quality across the region in collaboration with territorial authorities. 'Many of the existing municipal wastewater discharges have one or multiple contaminant standards in their existing consents or current applications which are stricter than what the proposed standards would require. 'Implementing these standards as they are would significantly undermine the substantial efforts and investments made by territorial authorities, which have been actively supported by our council, in upgrading wastewater treatment plant discharges,' said Cr Maher. 'If the government decides to progress the standards, then they should at least enable the council to maintain current discharge quality levels. If not, then water quality across the region could deteriorate and the percentage of waterways experiencing significant adverse effects may worsen.' Councillors also expressed their concerns regarding the proposal to grant new resource consents a 35-year timeframe. 'As a regulator, the council must be able to carry out a case-by-case assessment that considers localised effects and specific merits of an application to determine the appropriate duration of a resource consent,' said Cr Maher. 'Applying a blanket 35-year approach will not adequately account for future changes in environmental conditions, community needs and technology advancements.' The proposed wastewater environmental performance standards are expected to be set by late 2025 following enactment of the Local Government (Water Services) Bill. The report on the council's submission along with a recording of the Strategy and Policy Committee meeting can be viewed at
