The Council has informed the Hearing Panel Commissioners that it intends to continue with its application and to also lodge additional consent applications for the discharge of treated and raw wastewater into the harbour. The Council currently intends to request the consent authorities to publicly notify those applications. However, this may change if there are any material amendments to the relevant government legislation before that time.

The Council understands that the Commissioners will now decide whether to pause the Hearing until the Council lodges those additional discharge consent applications.

The Hearing was adjourned in February 2025, and Commissioners indicated it could not resume until at least May 2025 due to the availability of the Hearing Panel. However, they also indicated that the Hearing would likely be further adjourned until the Council lodges its resource consent application for releases of treated and raw wastewater into Akaroa Harbour. These are being prepared, together with an application for Duvauchelle wastewater, and the Council expects to lodge them in September and December 2025. If the Commissioners place the Hearing on hold until they are lodged, those applications will be assessed alongside the Council’s current irrigation to land consent application. The Council currently intends to discharge into the harbour when irrigation and storage facility capacity is exceeded.

At that time in February, the Council requested that the Hearing be paused to allow time to address a large number of questions that had been raised by the Commissioners and directed to the Council, Environment Canterbury, and Ōnuku Rūnanga for responses. The Council also sought time to reconsider alternative treated wastewater disposal methods raised by submitters. The Council has answered its questions, and they have been supplied to the Commissioners. These are publicly available on Environment Canterbury’s website.

Council’s Head of Three Waters Gavin Hutchison emphasises the importance of continuing the process toward a determination on these important operational aspects of the new treatment scheme.

“Moving forward with these resource consent applications doesn't rule out the Council separately considering other alternatives after the wastewater standards and new government legislation are in place. Our review of alternatives, to the extent necessary for the current applications, will be presented in evidence when the Hearing resumes.

“At this stage, the full implications of these new standards and law changes remains uncertain. However, to maintain progress on the applications, we will address any questions from Commissioners about our review once the Hearing resumes”.