NEW CONSENT

The new consent for Porirua Wastewater Treatment Plant came into effect on 12 July 2023. Consent is necessary to allow the plant to discharge fully treated wastewater out into the coastal marine area at Rukutane Point. Porirua City Council and their infrastructure manager Wellington Water Ltd applied for a re-consent which is now locked in for the next 18 years.

Your Bay Your Say is strongly opposed to the conditions in the re-consent application believing it to be a "licence to pollute" as the applicants have applied to increase the level of contamination being discharged into the ocean.

Rather than focusing on solutions to improve the effectiveness of the Porirua Wastewater Treatment Plant to reduce the level of contamination, the parties are instead spending millions of dollars on consultants, reports, and applications to dilute their culpability and ensure they are no longer running foul of their consent conditions. Little thought appears to have been given to the health of the environment in this scenario.

The Hearing for the re-consent process took place the week of the 13th-17th of June 2022. Wellington Water Ltd (the applicant on behalf of Porirua City Council who is the Consent Owner) and the public provided their evidence to a panel of four Independent Commissioners.

On the 21st of June 2023 the panel made their decision.
In this document they acknowledged (Section 7,3,2 “Evidence and Statements” , page 24) “some facts highly relevant to our understanding of the operation and effects of the Wastewater Treatment Plant only became apparent to the panel via the determined input of submitters.  In particular, information about the nature and extent of historical and ongoing non-compliance.  Some of those facts will have been known to the various expert witnesses and should therefore have been presented to us (The Commissioners’) through their evidence.’ 
Ngati Toa Rangatira (manu whenua) made a submission for a 10 year consent, but the Commissioners decided on an 18 year consent.
 
The conditions for the consent are more stringent and are meant to hold the Applicant to account, but it remains uncertain if the Compliance Authority (Greater Wellington Regional Council), will hold Porirua City Council and Wellington Water responsible for poor Treatment Plant performance and non-compliance.