Report an incident
To report an incident, phone the environmental protection team on 04 384 5708, 06 378 2484 or freephone 0800 4WGN REG (0800 496 734) or send us an email. While you'll need to provide your name, address and phone number, your details are absolutely confidential and won't be released to other parties.
What kind of incidents do we want to know about?
We investigate and assess compliance with the rules in the regional plans and existing resource consents for environmental incidents involving: contamination of land or water; the uses of lakes and streambeds; the use of water in lakes, streams, wetlands and groundwater, the coastal marine area.
The 24 hour environmental protection duty officer will respond to:
- Water pollution (streams, rivers, lakes, aquifers, harbour and sea)
- Land pollution (dumping, spillage and contaminated sites)
- Air pollution (smells, smoke, dust)
- Taking water (boreholes, pumps, land drainage etc)
- River works (channel cutting, bridges, culverts etc)
- Earthworks and vegetation clearance (subdivisions, forestry, tracking etc)
- Buildings and structures (construction, demolition, maintenance etc)
- Noise originating from the sea (such as boats and ships)
- Animals (carcases, pollution etc)
- Vehicles and boats (noise, pollution etc)
- Hazardous substances (pollution, fire/explosion risk etc).
What we don’t respond to
- Noise originating from land (house and traffic); urban drinking water supply contamination; incidents involving health effects in the wider public, vehicle related discharges
How we respond
We will be able to attend most incidents within one hour of being notified, unless we are delayed by traffic, or attending another incident. For some known pollution sources, such as Carey's Gully and Taylor Preston, there is a pre-determined threshold of complaints before a duty officer is able to investigate.
The Environmental Protection Team also undertakes Proactive Odour Monitoring. Officers from Greater Wellington monitor areas which we receive frequent complaints about in order to better understand the relationship between site activities, odour emissions, andincident notifications fromthe surrounding community.
If there is a clear breach of regional rules or the Resource Management Act, regulatory action may follow. During the investigation the Environmental Protection officer will obtain evidence if a prosecution is considered likely. Find out more about our enforcement process.
 |
| Sediment blocking stormwater drain as a result of earthworks |