Submission on Local Government (Water Services) Bill
Stormwater culvert in Lower Hutt. Megan Martin, PCE.
The Commissioner has expressed his concerns about the Local Government (Water Services) Bill in his submission to the Finance and Expenditure Committee. He points out that in attempting to simplify the treatment of stormwater and wastewater, the Bill is proposing an inflexible, one-size-fits-all approach that does not account for New Zealand’s regional and local differences.
“The result of this approach will be either over-engineered solutions that cost councils and ratepayers more than necessary, or lowered standards that will mean greater environmental degradation with no ability for local communities to manage it.”
He has made a series of recommendations including that the Bill retains the status quo where councils can impose more restrictive provisions than the national standards, but not weaker ones. He has also suggested that ‘environmental performance standards’ should be redefined and limited to ‘operational performance standards’ or ‘infrastructure performance standards'.