Hokonui Rūnanga tells Gore's council it won't support continued wastewater disposal to the Mataura River

Monday, 12 July 2021

The Gore District Council has applied for resource consents to operate its wastewater treatment plant at Gore, but the Hokonui Rūnanga says it will not support the application because it is culturally insensitive.

The Hokonui Rūnanga has told the Gore District Council it will not support its resource consent applications to discharge treated wastewater to the Mataura River unless it includes some form of discharge to land.

The reason being because it was culturally unacceptable to discharge it straight into the waterway.

The council has put its consent application to renew its wastewater discharge consents for both the Gore and Mataura wastewater treatment plants with Environment Southland on hold, until it has submitted an addendum to its existing application to modify the existing proposal.

It has also established a technical working party of representatives from the council and the rūnanga to investigate potential land disposal options for the Gore and Mataura wastewater treatment plants.

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A memo from the council’s 3 Waters asset manager Matt Baylis, which will be tabled at a full council meeting on Tuesday, says: ‘’it is now very clear that the Hokonui Rūnanga will not support any ongoing wastewater discharge solution unless it includes some form of discharge to land that will appropriately remove cultural pollutants.

“After considering case studies from recent similar wastewater discharge consent applications, it is also clear that, without the support of the Hokonui Rūnanga, the prospects of the council getting a favourable outcome on its consent application are limited.’’

A report from Courtney Bennett of the Hokonui Rūnanga, titled Culturally Responsive Wastewater Management in the Hokonui Takiwā, will also be tabled at the council meeting.

It says that when wastewater is discharged into a waterbody, the mauri – or life-supporting capacity – of that waterbody is degraded. This is unacceptable to Hokonui Rūnanga as they have a cultural responsibility to protect and enhance the mauri of the natural environment.

The report says that human waste is tapu – or is in a state of restriction – and that any ecosystems that receive human waste may also then become tapu, thus making them unable to be used for mahinga kai activities.

It explains the way that contact with Papatūānuku, the earth, can dissipate tapu and restore mauri; illustrating why discharge to land is the preferred method of wastewater discharge for Hokonui Rūnanga.

Bayliss’ report says the council and the rūnanga held a workshop on May 10 to discuss in detail the process that the council has gone through in the preparation of its consent renewal application, and to understand the Hokonui Runanga’s concerns and expectations regarding the councils’ wastewater discharges.

The council currently holds three resource consents associated with the Gore and Mataura wastewater treatment plants. The Mataura plant consent expired in May 2021, while the Gore consent expires in December 2023.

In November 2020, the council announced plans to build a new multi-million dollar biological nutrient removal treatment plant to treat wastewater before discharging it to the Mataura River.

The plant would be built in three stages, with completion in 2050 and would cost between $46 to $61 million.