Manawatu-Wanganui Regional Council's Environmental Monitoring Programmes
Brent Cowie, Director of Resources, Manawatu-Wanganui Regional Council
Abstract
The Resource Management Act gave regional councils broad new responsibilities and duties. Initial work focused on new resource consent processes, and preparing Regional Policy Statements. More recently most councils have produced several Regional Plans, and are presently preparing Pest Management Strategies under the Biosecurity Act.
The next significant challenge for most regional councils is to look afresh at their overall monitoring strategies, and to refine individual programmes. Monitoring is essential for two purposes - because it is part of good management, and because it is required by law.
Section 35 of the Resource Management Act states that every local authority shall monitor:
- the State of the Environment;
- the effectiveness of its policies and plans;
- the exercise of functions transferred or delegated to it or by it; and
- compliance with conditions on resource consents.
There are also requirements to monitor activities under other legislation. The Council is required by the Local Government Act to prepare an Annual Plan and to report on implementation of that Plan. The Biosecurity Act requires monitoring of the effectiveness of Pest Management Strategies.
The regional council's current Monitoring Programmes focuses primarily on compliance and some State of the Environment monitoring. There is a heavy emphasis on water, with less emphasis on land, air and waste. Present programmes are summarised in an Annual Monitoring Report. Individual major consent holders also get annual reports on compliance.
There are gaps in the Council's current environmental monitoring framework. There is no comprehensive reporting on some of its land management functions, nor on effectiveness of noxious plants programmes. Reporting is done on the effectiveness of soil conservation grant activity however, and regular monitoring is undertaken of possum populations before and after 1080 aerial drops.
A comprehensive review is presently being undertaken of all the Council's monitoring programmes. This will integrate all the Council's monitoring programmes into a coherent framework. Existing programmes will be reviewed, and new programmes defined.
Future reporting is likely to be in the below framework:
- A State of the Environment Report (new). A proposed table of contents is at Annex A. This will be prepared three yearly and report on indicators of environmental quality in the region. It will focus largely on the Council's section 30 Resource Management Act functions, and first be published in 1997.
- Monitoring of Policies and Plans. The Council is obliged to report periodically on the effectiveness of its Policies and Plans and Regional Pest Management Strategies. These reports will be prepared either two years before a Plan or Strategy is due to review and/or about four or five years after a Plan's implementation. They will assess the effectiveness of Council policies, how well they have been implemented, what changes in he environment can be attributed to them, and what policy modifications may be necessary.
- Annual Environmental Management Report This will report on all the Regional Council's regulatory activities under the Resource Management Act and Biosecurity Act. It win address regulatory activities such as consent compliance and pollution incidents, plant pest regulatory controls, and the effectiveness of the Council's service delivery and animal pest management functions.
- Individual Compliance Reports. The Council will continue to report to major discharges on their compliance with consent conditions. It is proposed that these reports will be done bi-annually rather than every year as at present.
The most difficult issue the Council confronts in designing its overall strategy is how to monitor its performance in promoting sustainable land management. It is only a part player and as yet there are no clear measures of sustainable land management. We do not even know clearly what it is. I look forward to the rest of this seminar outlining progress on indicator research.
Annex A
Draft Table of Content for State of the Environment Report
1 Introduction
2 Summary
3 Description of Region
4 Land
4.1 Land Productivity 4.2 Vulnerable Soils (Soil loss) 4.3 Productive Soils (Class I and II soils) 4.4 Contamination 4.5 Biota and Biodiversity 4.6 Landscapes
5 Water
5.1 Surface Water 10 Waste
5.1.1 Quantity 5.1.2 Quality 5.1.3 Biota
5.2 Ground Water
5.2.1 Quantity 5.2.2 Quality
6 Air Quality
7 Coastal Marine Environment
7.1 Water Quality 7.2 Biodiversity
8 Natural Hazards
9 Pests
9.1 Animal 9.2 Plant
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