In June last year, Environment Canterbury ECan) released its decision on a City Council application to continue discharging treated wastewater into the Estuary for up to 15 years. ECan’s approval was for another five years only and, among a long list of technical conditions, was the requirement that the CCC install a costly ultraviolet light UV) treatment system within two years.

After considering the ECan decision, the Council decided it should start working toward an ocean outfall. It also put in appeals to the Environment Court against some of the ECan conditions about the five-year Estuary consent. The Council’s main concerns are that the huge cost of a UV plant cannot be justified, and that five years is not enough time to plan for an ocean outfall, have it approved through the resource consent process and build it.

The Environment Court system encourages groups to talk outside the courtroom and continue try to reach an agreement.

CCC staff are in talks with several groups and individuals about how the Estuary outfall conditions might be altered so that everyone is satisfied.

City Council solicitor Aidan Prebble says the priority for most of the groups with an interest in the appeals is that the city's wastewater discharge be removed from the Estuary as soon as possible.

What the Council is offering, he says, is to be out of the Estuary by 2009 and to work as swiftly as it possibly can to get the ocean outfall planned, approved and built.

Target dates for each stage of the project would be agreed upon and, if it was unable to meet those milestones, the Council would have to publicly explain any delay.

• A report on the Estuary resource consent negotiations and progress was considered last month by the Christchurch City Council. It is available on the web, at www.ccc.govt.nz/Council/Proceedings/2003/May/SustainableTransport/CWTPResConsent.pdf