Many Resource Consents require the consent holder to prepare and submit an Annual Environmental Compliance Report to the Regional Council. But what exactly does this entail and how can you ensure you comply with your consent’s requirements?
Generally, the Resource Consent will have a condition similar to the following:
An annual report and interpreting the monitoring results and compliance with the conditions of this resource consent during the previous 12 months, shall be supplied to the Council’s Environmental Compliance Manager by 31 August each year. The summary of results shall include an analysis of any trends in the monitoring results.
This requires the consent holder to:
- Identify all elements of the consent which are required to be reported upon. Depending on the type of consent and activity, this may include soil monitoring results, effluent sample results, water take volumes and rates of take, groundwater monitoring data, nutrient loading data etc.
- Collate and summarise data for the required monitoring and reporting period. Depending on the type of data, this information is generally presented in tables or graph format.
- Analyse data and provide commentary on trends observed, including causal factors. Typically, data is compared to limits within the Resource Consent (e.g. does monitoring data show compliance with the limit of 150kgN/ha/yr). However, most resource consents also require that monitoring data for the reporting period is compared against historic monitoring data in order to identify any trends in the monitoring results. Where a trend is identified, an analysis should be completed of the nature and potential environmental effect of the trend.
- Provide a summary of compliance for each of the specified conditions. Where a non-compliance has been identified or previously reported to Council, the summary should include details of the corrective actions that have been implemented to prevent repeat non-compliances.
Still not sure or don’t have the time to complete your Annual Environmental Compliance Report? Let WM Environmental take the hassle out of it for you. We’ll ensure you’re fulfilling your Resource Consent reporting requirements and prepare the required report for you. We can also support with developing monitoring databases to streamline future monitoring, in order to save your business time and cost in the future. Drop us a line for more information.
Posted: 13 April 2020