One Size Fits All? A Regulatory Approach to Utilising Discharge Limits to Achieve Improved Environmental Outcomes

It is common knowledge that intervention is necessary to mitigate the ongoing effects of urban contamination on our waterways.

Intervention is usually achieved via discharge consents, granted only if appropriate management practices are implemented to avoid, remedy or mitigate effects on the receiving environment. However, insufficient data exists to determine whether the proposed controls and limits are achieving environmental outcomes. In particular, not enough is known about specific receiving environments, which makes setting discharge limits ‘guesswork’.

Industrial and Trade Activities (ITA) within the Auckland region often rely on the perceived performance of ‘standard’ treatment devices rather than providing a full AEE which considers their specific receiving environment. Relying on the perceived performance of a device is only a suitable approach if all receiving environments are the same.

The need to review and set water quality limits at a catchment level is gaining momentum with the advent of the NPS: Freshwater Management, the Auckland Council Unitary Plan and the proposed ‘super catchment’ Network Discharge Consents. With this in mind, better information about the likely tolerances of specific receiving environments is required to inform the consent process.

Moving forward, environmental improvement cannot be achieved if councils and businesses continue to operate in an isolated manner. All parties need to recognise the constraints and opportunities and work collaboratively to achieve the best environmental outcomes possible.