HAWKE’S BAY REGIONAL COUNCIL
Māori
Committee
Tuesday 12 February 2019
Subject: Regional Three Waters
Review
Reason for Report
1. This report
seeks to inform the Māori Committee on the Hawkes Bay Regional
Council’s work with the region’s four territorial authorities to
develop a regional business case assessing options to improve the management of
drinking water, stormwater and wastewater (Three Waters) in the Hawke’s
Bay region and in doing so, address Central Government concerns associated with
these activities.
2. This review
will develop recommendations for performance improvements to our Regional Three
Waters systems with a view to guiding Central Government’s Three Waters
strategy.
3. It should be
noted that this review is specifically looking at the service delivery function
of Three Waters and does not seek to review the resource management or
regulatory framework.
Staff Recommendation
4. Staff
recommend that the Māori Committee receives and notes the report.
5. Background Summary
6. The Government
is investigating options on how to improve the management of drinking water,
stormwater and wastewater (three waters) to better support New Zealand’s
prosperity, health, safety and environment. Local Government Minister Nanaia
Mahuta has announced a reform programme to transform drinking, storm and
wastewater. It is focused on the challenges facing the sector, including
funding pressures, rising environmental standards, climate change, seasonal
pressure from tourism, and the recommendations of the Havelock North
Inquiry. The review is in its second stage.
6.1. Stage One
– This stage explored the issues and opportunities with three
waters services by gathering and analysing information. This was completed at
the end of 2017.
6.2. Stage Two
– This stage commenced in March 2018. It is looking at options for
improving the three waters system, including the management, service delivery,
funding, and regulatory arrangements.
7. Central
government has advised that they will work closely with councils, Iwi and all
stakeholders with an interest in three waters services in order to develop
options and recommendations.
8. There is an
opportunity to provide the Hawke’s Bay’s perspective into the
Central Government review on developing options to address the key concerns on
how we can improve the management of drinking water, storm water and wastewater
(“Three Waters”) to better support our community’s
prosperity, health, safety and environment.
9. The Minister
has advised she is supportive of our region’s proposal to complete this
review and how it may be adopted as part of the wider government review.
10. The purpose of the
Hawke’s Bay review is to have developed recommendations for regional
performance improvements to our Three Waters systems to help guide Central
Governments thinking to deliver:
10.1. Safe, NZDWS compliant
and reliable drinking water
10.2. Better environmental
performance for our water services
10.3. Efficient, sustainable,
resilient, and accountable water services
10.4. Achieving these aims in
ways that are efficient and effective for our communities.
11. This review will need to
address the following challenges for our water systems and communities:
11.1. Meeting community
expectations for each of the Three Waters across quality, treatment and
management
11.2. Meeting regulatory
requirements for the Three Waters for quality, treatment and management
11.3. The ability to replace
infrastructure as it ages, and or fund and manage new infrastructure to meet
changing customer and regulatory requirements.
11.4. Declining rating bases
in some areas, high growth in others
11.5. High seasonal demand in
small tourism centres
11.6. Adapting for climate
change and adverse natural events.
12. The review will identify
and develops options for structure and governance models that:
12.1. Develops and confirms
‘Key Principles’ of approach that are shared and agreed by the
respective council’s
12.2. Identifies service and
delivery model opportunities through joint provision of all or some elements of
the Three Waters services. In identifying a range of models these shall be
compared to the status quo including clustering of sub-regional entities.
The models must be flexible enough to future proof for the inclusion of private
water suppliers.
12.3. Develops strategic
capacity and resilience across the water network
12.4. Provides excellence in
strategic and management capability to ensure safe, secure efficient drinking
water, waste water and storm water service outcomes to our communities.
12.5. Provide economic value
and be able to demonstrate how well and why the identified models meet each of
the objectives including benefits analysis, cost of service delivery, funding
requirements, how fees and charges are levied and where the costs are
distributed, and processes.
12.6. Provides capital efficiency
current and future Three Waters assets
12.7. Delivers operational and
maintenance excellence through the most effective service delivery model
12.8. Improves customer
service
12.9. Provides greater
environmental, community and cultural focus
12.10. Recommend the next steps to enable the
entire objectives to be met including a programme and cost/resource estimates
to do this – this should also include transition plans/costs and
timetables for such a transition.
13. Hawke’s Bay Regional
Council’s service delivery functions of drainage and flood protection are
not in scope of this review. However, the involvement of Hawke’s
Bay Regional Council will keep us informed into possible direction of Three
Waters delivery in Hawkes Bay. This is important in managing the interface
between territorial authority and Regional Council drainage and stormwater
schemes. It is also valuable for the Regional Council to be involved given our
interests as regulator of Three Waters and the natural resources this infrastructure
interacts with.
14. In order to undertake the
review it will be necessary to engage the services of an external agency to
support its delivery. We will be seeking a fixed cost engagement via our
procurement process. It is proposed that costs will be attributed on the
following basis:
14.1. NCC 35%
14.2. HDC 35%
14.3. HBRC 15%
14.4. WDC 7.5%
14.5. CHBC 7.5%.
Risk
15. Undertaking the review is
considered the lowest strategic risk option. This option would contribute the
Hawkes Bay regional perspective into the Central Government review on how we
can improve the management of drinking water, stormwater and wastewater (Three
Waters).
Approved Option
16. On the 19 December 2018
Council approved Option 1 which is repeated below. Option 2 (do not participate
in the project) has been removed from this paper as it was not selected.
Option 1 –
Council confirms its support for the project
17. Financial and Resourcing
Implications
17.1. Additional funding will
not be required to complete the review.
17.2. The review will be
outsourced to an external consultancy to deliver the report, however the will
be a moderate resourcing impact on council staff to provide information to
complete the analysis and participate in workshops throughout the review
process. The successful bid for the project was from Morrison Lowe supported by
WSP Opus.
18. Risk Analysis
18.1. This option is
considered the lowest strategic risk option. This option would contribute the
Hawke’s Bay regional perspective into the Central Government review on
how we can improve the management of drinking water, storm water and wastewater
(Three Waters).
19. Promotion or Achievement
of Community Outcomes
19.1. This review demonstrates
our commitment to making sustainable investment in durable infrastructure that
promotes smart growth and ensures we are environmentally responsible.
20. Statutory Responsibilities
20.1. The review will
contribute towards meeting our statutory responsibilities through better
territorial authority asset management and performance, and ultimately
compliance.
21. Consistency with Policies
and Plans
21.1. The project is not part
of the latest LTP, and the budget available is from the existing budget
provision.
22. Community Views and
Preferences
22.1. This option has been
identified as requiring specific engagement Māori. Any significant changes
to activity arising from the review will involve future public engagement and
consultation.
23. Advantages and
Disadvantages
23.1. The advantages of this
option are:
23.1.1. provision of the Hawke’s
Bay’s regional perspective into the Central Government review to shape
their thinking
23.1.2. working together as a region
to develop the best regional model to deliver a strategic and sustainable
approach to Three Waters.
23.2. There are no perceived
disadvantages of this option relative to option 2.
Iwi Engagement
24. Māori advisory
representatives contributed to the creation of criteria to assess experience in
cultural competency as part of the procurement process.
25. Iwi Engagement will be
guided and led by Troy Brockbank of WSP Opus. Troy is currently a tech advisor
for Te Rarawa Iwi, deputy chairman of the Water NZ Stormwater committee and
member of Ngā Aho, the Māori design panel.
26. Māori Committee
Chairs and Council Senior Māori advisors were invited to a workshop of 21
January 2018 to contribute to the Key Objectives and Principles of the study.
27. Further engagement with
HBRC is being scheduled for February to identify key objectives principles and
values for the review:
27.1. What is important
regionally to Iwi & Māori?
27.2. What are the problems or
opportunities we are trying to address?
27.3. What are the key issues
for Iwi & Māori?
27.4. What benefits are we
seeking to gain for the region?
27.5. What are the risks and
issues for the region?
27.6. What are the key issues
for Iwi & Māori?
27.7. What are the key
values/criteria to assess any options against?
Schedule
28. The project will be
delivered in a structured series of phases to allow us to deliver our Hawkes
Bay regional contribution to the Central Government led review of Three Waters
by June 2019.
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Phase 1 – Project initiation
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December 2018 – January 2019
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Phase 2 – Stocktake of current situation
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January – February 2019
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Phase 3 – High level review of options
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January – March 2019
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Phase 4 – Analysis of shortlist
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March – April 2019
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Phase 5 – Challenge workshop
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April 2019
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Phase 6 – Final report
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May 2019
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Decision Making
Process
29. Council
is required to make every decision in accordance with the requirements of the
Local Government Act 2002 (the Act). Staff have assessed the requirements in
relation to this item and have concluded:
29.1. The decision
does not significantly alter the service provision or affect a strategic asset.
29.2. The decision
does not fall within the definition of Council’s policy on significance.
29.3. The decision
is not inconsistent with an existing policy or plan.
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Recommendations
That the Māori Committee receives and notes the “Regional
Three Waters Review” staff report.
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Authored and
Approved by:
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Chris
Dolley
Group Manager Asset Management
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Attachment/s
There are no
attachments for this report.
HAWKE’S BAY REGIONAL
COUNCIL
Māori
Committee
Tuesday 12 February 2019
Subject: Central Hawke's Bay
Wastewater Discharge Update
Reason for Report
1. This is to inform the committee of the establishment of the Central
Hawke's Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade Community Reference Group and of
the progress to date.
Background
2. Central Hawke’s Bay District Council has established this
reference group to enable a review of the Waipukurau and Waipawa treatment
plants with the intention of improving the methods of treatment and
discharge. This has been required because of areas of non-compliance with
their existing discharge permits. This non-compliance was the reason that
HBRC sought and obtained an Enforcement Order from the Environment Court for
the Waipawa treatment plant. The Court required that a review be
undertaken of the Waipawa plant. The Wapukurau treatment plant has also
been experiencing non-compliance with the ammonia conditions. Since
establishing this group, the Otane treatment plant has been added, as there may
be opportunities to link this into solutions developed for the larger systems.
3. The group was initially made up of community representatives (Haana
Wilcox, Clint Deckhard Michael Severinsen), District Councillors (Councillor
Ian Sharp and Councillor David Tennent), District Council staff Josh Lloyd,
Karen Bothwell, Shane Kingston and Darren de Klerk) and Regional Council staff
(Wayne Wright, Compliance Manager), Malcolm Miller (Consents Manager) and Tania
Diack (Consents Planner). Hamish Lowe (LEI) and John Crawford (BECA) are
providing technical support. It was agreed at the fourth meeting that the
representation of the group should be widened to include trade waste/commercial
business (Rickie Carnie), Youth Council, Grey Power, Fish and Game, farmers and
Otane (Simon White), Hapu (John Barry-Smith) and a representative of each of
Mataweka, Tapairu, Te Whatuiāpiti and Waipukurau marae.
4. The minutes of
the November meeting, recorded that it has been difficult to get marae
involvement. An effort was to be made following this meeting to contact
the marae and seek their representation on the working group.
5. The group has been appraised of the current state of the treatment
plants and their performance. A preliminary review of the Waipawa plant
was required by the Environment Court by December 2017 and has been provided to
the group. This indicates that the Waipawa plant (without changes) will
remain marginal at meeting flow and E. coli conditions and will fail to meet
the ammonia conditions. Other conditions can be met, but this is
qualified by the statement that this is providing “additional lamella,
sand filter and UV capacity is installed to effectively treat the PWWF (peak
wet weather flow), or stormwater I&I is significantly reduced, so peak
flows are within the hydraulic capacity of these tertiary treatment
processes”.
6. Some recommendations were made in this report, but the Reference
Group are being asked to look afresh at all options for each of the communities
and to and provide their view to the Council on what they would like to see
adopted. The group is still in the information gathering reporting phase.
7. At the previous meeting the group created a vision for the
project. This is recorded as follows:
“Our effluent
is treated in a sustainable way that creates a resource, protects our
environment and continues to do so for generations to come”
8. A fifth meeting is scheduled for 5 February. A concluding and
reporting date is not set.
Decision Making
Process
9. Staff have
assessed the requirements of the Local Government Act 2002 in relation to this
item and have concluded that, as this report is for information only, the
decision making provisions do not apply.
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Recommendation
That the Māori Committee receives the “Central Hawke's Bay
Wastewater Discharge Update” report.
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Authored by:
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Malcolm
Miller
Manager Consents
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Wayne Wright
Manager Compliance
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Approved by:
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Liz Lambert
Group Manager Regulation
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Attachment/s
There are no
attachments for this report.
HAWKE’S BAY REGIONAL
COUNCIL
Māori
Committee
Tuesday 12 February 2019
Subject: February 2019 Statutory
Advocacy Update
Reason for Report
1. To report on proposals forwarded to the Regional Council and
assessed by staff acting under delegated authority as part of the
Council’s Statutory Advocacy project since the last update in May 2018.
2. The Statutory Advocacy project (Project 196) centres on resource
management-related proposals upon which the Regional Council has an opportunity
to make comments or to lodge a submission. These include, but are not limited
to:
2.1. resource consent applications publicly notified by a territorial
authority,
2.2. district plan reviews or district plan changes released by a
territorial authority,
2.3. private plan change requests publicly notified by a territorial
authority,
2.4. notices of requirements for designations in district plans,
2.5. non-statutory strategies, structure plans, registrations, etc
prepared by territorial authorities, government ministries or other agencies
involved in resource management.
3. In all cases, the Regional Council is not the
decision-maker, applicant nor proponent. In the Statutory Advocacy project, the
Regional Council is purely an agency with an opportunity to make comments or
lodge submissions on others’ proposals. The Council’s position in
relation to such proposals is informed by the Council’s own Plans,
Policies and Strategies, plus its land ownership or asset management interests.
4. The summary outlines those proposals that the Council’s
Statutory Advocacy project is currently actively engaged in. This
period’s update report excludes the numerous Marine and Coastal Area Act
proceedings little has changed since the previous update.
Decision Making
Process
5. Staff have
assessed the requirements of the Local Government Act 2002 in relation to this
item and have concluded that, as this report is for information only, the
decision making provisions do not apply.
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Recommendation
That the Māori Committee receives the “February 2019 Statutory
Advocacy Update” report.
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Authored by:
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Gavin Ide
Manager Policy and Planning
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Approved by:
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Tom Skerman
Group Manager Strategic Planning
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Attachment/s
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⇩1
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Statutory
Advocacy Update February 2019
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