Project CARE - Kokopu Connection

Wastewater and stormwater network consent process

Notification of resource applications

The Auckland Regional Council (ARC) has notified the consent applications. Their notifcation letter, see below, provides further details about the process. Submissions to the ARC close on Tuesday, November 28, 2006.

North Shore City Council summary newsletter PDF (627 KB)
Auckland Regional Council notification letter PDF (144 KB)
Auckland Regional Council submission form PDF (57 KB)

Why is the Council applying for resource consents?

All operators of stormwater and wastewater networks in the Auckland region, including North Shore City Council, were required to apply for resource consents in 2001. This was necessary to meet the legal requirements set out in the Resource Management Act. As part of this process, the council is seeking a number of City-wide resource consents from the Auckland Regional Council (ARC) to authorise existing and future network activities.

What will resource consents cover?

The resource consents will authorise all aspects of the operation, maintenance and upgrading of the wastewater and stormwater systems in accordance with conditions. The conditions will ensure that any adverse effects of the systems on the environment will be minimised as far as practicable. All Council's existing wastewater and stormwater consents will be superceded by the network consents.

Our stormwater and wastewater networks and their effects

Stormwater and wastewater networks are essential infrastructure for any large modern urban area and our city is no exception. These networks, and our water supply system, are vital in terms of protecting public health and well-being.

All networks have a limited capacity and deteriorate with time. Under some conditions, particularly in heavy rainfall, this can result in adverse effects on the environment. We need to ensure the networks have adequate capacity and that adverse effects do not reach unacceptable levels, which comes at a cost. Wastewater overflows are one adverse effect we need to minimise, for example.

To help us manage our environment effectively, we divided the city into seven “Combined Drainage Catchments,” or CDCs for short. We chose the name “Combined Drainage Catchments” because they combine smaller catchments and we will manage the stormwater, wastewater and other activities in each area in an integrated or “combined” way to achieve our desired outcomes.

The seven Combined Drainage Catchments are shown on the plan.The characteristics of the receiving waters they drain to are summarised below.

CDC Characteristics of Receiving Environment

1 - Sensitive aquatic receiving environment with high recreational use
2 - High use beaches exposed to north easterly winds
3 - High use beaches more protected from north easterly winds by Rangitoto Island
4 - Harbour environment with moderate water transfer
5 & 6 - Harbour environment where the rate of water transfer is slow
7 - Lake Pupuke

How to obtain more information

The scale of the project has necessitated the preparation of more than a hundred technical and other reports. Nine summary documents are available that summarise the overall process and findings, as follows:

Report KC 200 Overall network consent strategy and process summary document PDF (670 KB)
Report KC 201 Summary document for combined drainage catchment 1 PDF (752 KB)
Report KC 202 Summary document for combined drainage catchment 2 PDF (1.08 MB)
Report KC 203 Summary document for combined drainage catchment 3 PDF (794 KB)
Report KC 204 Summary document for combined drainage catchment 4 PDF (1.24 MB)
Report KC 205 Summary document for combined drainage catchment 5 PDF (1.22 MB)
Report KC 206 Summary document for combined drainage catchment 6 PDF (1.16 MB)
Report KC 207 Summary document for combined drainage catchment 7 PDF (977 KB)
Report KC 208 Basis of applying for consents PDF (579 KB)
Stream reports - Survey results from walking 26 of the city streams

Community Board meetings

Information about the consent process will be presented at the following Community Board meetings. The public are invited to attend.

For further information

If you require further information, please contact our Resource Consent Co-ordinator Pete Thomas on:

You will need Acrobat Reader to view some documents on this page, which can be downloaded free from www.adobe.com