operates a natural gut processing plant
located on SH45 west of Manaia, in the Kaupokonui River catchment. The Company holds a
resource consent to allow it to discharge wastewater directly into the Tasman Sea. This
report for the period July 2012-June 2013 describes the monitoring programme implemented
by the Taranaki Regional Council to assess the Company’s environmental performance
during the period under review, and the results and effects of the Company’s activities.
The resource consent
operation involves mixing of cement, aggregate, water and additives in concrete mixing
trucks for delivery to end users, and recently it has been used only as a satellite plant. The site is also used
for the storage of aggregate, sand and builders mix for retail sale.
Firth Industries holds one resource consent, which includes a total of seven conditions setting out the
requirements that they must satisfy. The consent allows for the discharge of treated wastewater onto and
into land and into an
abstraction data.
In September 2012, the Company commissioned a 20.7 ha extension of the irrigation area, and a
further extension of 6.0 ha became operational in January 2013. Both areas were already covered
by resource consent. This voluntary action, for which the Company was given an Environmental
Award by Council, increased the area irrigated for wastewater disposal by 36% to 110.5 ha to
provide for increased production at the meat processing plant and to lower nitrogen loadings.
Irrigation of
requirements that they must satisfy, whilst the renewed consent includes 10 conditions.
The consent allows for the discharge of wastewater into an unnamed tributary of the Waitara
River.
During the year under review, Allied Concrete demonstrated an overall high level of
environmental performance.
Firth Industries is a division of Fletcher Concrete and Infrastructure Limited is hereafter referred
to as Firth Industries. They operate a concrete batching plant located on Glover Road, Hawera in
the
resulted in reduced suspended solids loadings and lessened the turbidity impact on
the Kurapete Stream at all times during the monitoring year, with effects on the receiving
environment of the Kurapete Stream generally found to be insignificant (with minimal re-
suspension of fine sediment in the receiving water tributary). Previous reconfiguration of
the combined washwater and quarry pit stormwater/groundwater treatment ponds system
resulted in compliance with wastewater discharge conditions on
Ammoniacal forms of nitrogen enter waterways primarily through point source discharges, such as
wastewater or dairy shed effluent. It is toxic to aquatic life at high concentrations.
Nitrate (toxicity)
Nitrate is the concentration of nitrogen present in the form of the nitrate ion. Nitrate is a water soluble
molecule made up of nitrogen and oxygen with the chemical formula NO3. It is a very important plant
nutrient but because of its high water-solubility, it leaches readily through
Waitara Marine Outfall, which
discharges approximately 1250 m offshore from the mouth of the Waitara River into the
Tasman Sea. The outfall provides for the disposal of wastewater from the Waitara
municipal sewage reticulation system, along with Methanex Waitara Valley and Methanex
Motunui Limited methanol plants. The outfall was previously managed by the Waitara
Outfall Management Board (WOMB), made up of NPDC, Methanex and Anzco Foods
Waitara Limited. In 2010, NPDC took over sole management
Kurapete
Stream at all times during the monitoring year, with effects on the receiving environment of
the Kurapete Stream generally found to be insignificant (with minimal re-suspension of fine
sediment in the receiving water tributary). Previous reconfiguration of the combined
washwater and quarry pit stormwater/groundwater treatment ponds system resulted in
compliance with wastewater discharge conditions on all occasions. Minimal impacts on the
biological community of the stream were found
level of environmental
performance.
The Council’s monitoring programme for the year under review included three inspections and the
collection of two wastewater and receiving water samples collected for physicochemical analysis.
The monitoring showed that the wastewater and receiving water samples were well within the consented
limits.
During the year, the Company demonstrated a high level of environmental and administrative performance
with the resource consents.
No
consents relating to the Aquatic Centre, which include a total
of thirteen special conditions that the NPDC must satisfy. One consent allows NPDC to
discharge swimming pool wastewater into the Tasman Sea, and the other allows it to erect,
place, use and maintain a discharge pipe at the site.
The Council’s monitoring programme for the year under review included one site inspection,
two marine ecological inspections, one discharge sample and one receiving water sample
collected for