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Compliance monitoring is used to measure the performance of consent holders, to assess the environmental effects of consented activities, and to assess how well the Council is managing the region's resources.
Every activity that has a resource consent is monitored to check that the consent conditions, or any of the rules in the Council's regional plans that may apply, are met.
Compliance monitoring includes:
The type and frequency of monitoring will depend on the scale of the activity and the potential environment impacts. The Council has three types of compliance monitoring programmes:
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Once only inspections
Activities that are not likely to have any long-term harmful effects on the environment, such as the construction of a small culvert or dam, are generally inspected once at the end of a specific work programme, to ensure that the consent conditions are met.
Annual inspections
These are carried out for activities that suit standardised inspections and are not of significant concern if managed properly. They include farm effluent treatment systems, and minor industrial discharges (garages or sawmills). An inspection may occasionally include sampling.
All agricultural effluent treatment systems in the region are inspected annually. Each year around 2,000 dairy farms, poultry farms and piggeries are inspected. Normally less than 5% of the farms have to be re-inspected for failing to meet Council policy, consents or conditions.
Over 900 minor industries, such as garages, saleyards and truck depots, are inspected annually to ensure good environmental practice. The re-inspection rate is about 3%.
The annual inspection rounds for industrial and agricultural activities are reported to Council and the public.
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Tailored site-specific compliance monitoring programmes
These programmes are designed for large or complex activities that have the potential to significantly affect the environment. These include landfills and large industrial or sewage discharges. The programme is agreed when the consent is granted and is reviewed annually. A number of consents or adjacent industries may be jointly monitored to increase efficiency or interpretation of results.
Over 200 tailored compliance monitoring programmes are implemented each year, covering sereral hundred consents and involving thousands of inspections, water samples, freshwater and marine biological surveys and air samples.
Annual monitoring reports, which are available to the public, are prepared for each tailored compliance monitoring programme.
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