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Environment

Summer and Juliet testing the water

Healthy environment
Sense of place
Healthy community

  • Develop and implement the Regional Policy Statement (RPS) and regional plans.
  • Process and monitor resource consents.
  • Investigate and clean-up pollution incidents.
  • Research key environmental issues and threats.
  • Measure the quality and quantity of our natural resources, eg, river flows, air quality and soil health.
  • Report to the public on the state of the environment.
  • Help children, businesses and the community to look after and restore the environment.

Key projects for 2008/09


Activity: Manage resources

  • Progress the Regional Policy Statement (RPS) through the statutory approval process. The RPS is the principal document for managing the region's natural and physical resources
  • Continue to carry out our core functions, such as consent processing, compliance monitoring and enforcement, and provide a 24-hour pollution-response service for the community
  • Enhance our Take Charge business pollution-prevention programme. Using a combination of education and enforcement tools, and focusing on commercial and industrial areas, this programme manages non-compliance with regional rules and promotes best practice
  • Continue to promote our Muddy Waters and urban streams programme – a set of initiatives targeted at local authorities, contractors and consultants to improve environmental performance on earthworks sites to lessen the impact of land development on urban streams

Activity: Monitor the state of the environment

  • Continue to monitor the quality of the region’s air, water and soil to enable us to report on the state of the region's environment
  • Manage our air-monitoring programme, in compliance with the National Environmental Standard for Air Quality, which requires that we monitor and analyse air quality in the eight air sheds in our region. This year we will also be setting up a new air quality monitoring station
  • Continue to expand the flood-warning systems in the Wairarapa’s eastern hills as a result of reviewing our hydrological monitoring network
  • Continue to investigate groundwater in the Wairarapa to ensure it is used efficiently
  • Assess flows of rivers and streams to support the sustainable management of the region’s surface water
  • Carry out surveillance monitoring for didymo, a role recently transferred to Greater Wellington from Biosecurity New Zealand
  • Gain a detailed understanding of the state of the harbour and assess the effects of discharges into the harbour

Activity: Environmental education

  • Continue with our Take Care and Take Action programmes. Take Care supports community groups, businesses and landowners to restore wetlands, streams, dunes and estuaries. Take Action is our school environment education programme
  • Help businesses implement sound environmental policies and practices

Download

Download the Environment (PDF, 297KB)section of the Annual Plan, which includes the key projects, key changes, short-term targets and the funding breakdown.

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