Summary 2007-08

 

Overview

· Northland Regional Council (NRC) operates four hazardous waste collection depots in Northland for the collection and/or storage of hazardous substances before transport for disposal. NRC also operates a mobile collection service.

· NRC staff undertake inspections of workplaces that store or use hazardous substances, on behalf of the Department of Labour.

· NRC provides a 24/7 emergency response team for incidents involving hazardous substances.

· NRC also inspects contaminated sites and both closed and operational landfills for compliance with resource consents, rules and regulations.

Performance Targets

To reduce the quantities of hazardous substances and hazardous wastes entering Northland's environment and minimise the adverse effects of these by:

· Facilitating safe and lawful storage of hazardous substances and management of waste hazardous substances by:

  • Providing a collection, transport, storage and disposal service for waste hazardous substances - ACHIEVED
  • Exporting for safe destruction, the intractable waste hazardous substances that the Council has collected - ACHIEVED
  • Providing a hazardous substance storage compliance monitoring and incident response service - ACHIEVED
  • Producing an annual report to the Department of Labour and the Council on the performance of these services - ACHIEVED

· Facilitate the management of contaminated sites in Northland by:

  • Maintaining and updating a database of potentially contaminated sites, site assessments and remediation - ACHIEVED
  • Promoting the assessment and remediation of significant contaminated sites - ACHIEVED
  • Promote the availability of contaminated site data - ONGOING

Summary of results 2007-08

· Approximately 5 tonnes of waste hazardous substances collected in 2007-08

· 360 workplace inspections undertaken

· 27 environmental Incidents involving hazardous wastes attended

· 15 contaminated sites visited and inspected

· All landfill sites monitored in 2007-08 were within their compliance limits