28 September 2004

Submissions open for tougher septic tank plan

For immediate release: Tuesday 28 September 2004 A major plan that sets tougher standards for septic tank systems will officially open for submissions on Tuesday 5 October.

Environment Bay of Plenty recently revised its On-Site Effluent Treatment Regional Plan to make it stricter, especially around the vulnerable Rotorua lakes. After two months of consultation on a draft, including the distribution of more than 400 copies, the revised plan is now being publicly notified. Submissions are open until Friday 3 December.

Environment Bay of Plenty’s group manager regulation and resource management, Paul Dell says the region has thousands of households with on-site treatment systems. Many are “very old and very basic”, he says. In some areas, they are causing quite serious pollution problems.

Mr Dell says the revised plan includes rules that will lift the standard for all new conventional systems, with further requirements for the Rotorua lakes catchments. It takes into account new treatment technologies and introduces greater setback distances from lakes, streams and the coast. For the first time, it addresses contamination not only by bacteria but also from nitrogen and phosphorus, nutrients that affect water quality.

The plan also includes a revised list of “hot spot” communities on compulsory inspection and maintenance programmes. Several communities – Athenree, Waihi Beach, and Woodlands – have been removed from the list, mostly because of progress made with reticulation or upgrades. Rotoma, Rotokawa, Te Puna and Ongare Point are now included after monitoring and assessments suggested problems with degraded water quality.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>