To report a pollution incident, call the Council's environmental hotline: 0800 736 222.
The Council has a 24-hour, seven day a week response to environmental incidents to control and clean up pollution and take prosecution action if necessary.
Environmental incidents include spills, accidents and situations where an industry or resource consent holder does not meet consent conditions or regional plan rules. More than half of the incidents that the Council investigates are reported by the public.
Most incidents relate to spills or discharges affecting fresh water. Incidents also involve air quality (odours), the coastal environment or contamination of land. In many cases resource consent holders are required to prepare contingency plans to outline ways to reduce environmental risk and the response to environmental incidents.
As resource users have become more aware of their environmental responsibilities the number of major pollution events has decreased.
Marine oil spills
The fragile marine environment is a valuable recreational, cultural and economic resource which must be protected from the impact of maritime activities. Taranaki has a busy port with the import and export of containers, petrochemical products and agricultural produce through Port Taranaki and much has been done to reduce the risk of pollution.
The Council works with the maritime industry, MaritimeNZ and Port Taranaki to be prepared and to make sure that plans are in place to minimise the impact of any marine pollution that may occur.
The response to a marine oil spill will depend on the scale of the event. The main objectives of a spill response are to prevent further pollution and to safely contain and/or clean up the spill without causing damage to the marine environment.
Tier 1
If there is a small site-specific spill the industry or owner of the vessel is responsible for cleaning up and containing the spill immediately. The spiller must notify and work with the Taranaki Regional Council.
Tier 2
When the spiller is unknown or if they can’t cope with the response then the Taranaki Regional Council will take control of the response and assist with the clean up.
Tier 3
If the response is beyond the resources of Tiers 1 and 2 because of the size, complexity or environmental risk then Maritime NZ will take control.
The Taranaki Regional Council has a stock of equipment to clean up spills and MaritimeNZ provides resources and training to support the Council. MaritimeNZ also maintains specialised equipment at Port Taranaki and can call on a National Response Team to deal with major marine oil spills. The Council has a trained response team which regularly carries out training exercises with Port Taranaki staff and MaritimeNZ.
There is an internationally agreed principle that the “spiller pays” and the Council and MaritimeNZ will always try to identify the spiller and take appropriate action.
For more information on marine pollution go to www.maritimenz.govt.nz