Annual report 2006-2007 - Taranaki Regional Council

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The stream at this site had a cloudy flow, with substrate comprising hard clay and
tree roots. Prior to the survey there was a reasonable period of flow recession, being
93 days since a flood in excess of 3 times median flow had occurred.
Site D in the Kahouri Stream tributary would be expected to support ‘poorer’
macroinvertebrate communities than those of the Kahouri Stream due to the clay
substrate, but in this survey the community contained many ‘sensitive’ taxa and had
relatively high MCI and SQMCIs scores, indicating no detrimental effects from
discharges in the Stratford industrial area in the upper part of the tributary which
includes discharges from Taranaki Galvanizers, Egmont Tanneries and Firth
Industries.
A full biological report is given in Appendix II.
8.5 Register of incidents
The Taranaki Regional Council operates and maintains a register of all complaints or
reported and discovered excursions from acceptable limits and practices, including
non-compliance with consents, which may damage the environment. The register
(‘unauthorised incident register’) includes events where the company concerned has
itself notified the Council. The register contains details of any investigation and
corrective action taken.
Incidents may be alleged to be associated with a particular site. If there is an issue of
legal liability, the Council must be able to prove by investigation that the identified
company is indeed the source of the incident (or that the allegation cannot be
proven).
In the 2006-2007 year, there were no incidents recorded by the Council that were
associated with Fletcher Concrete & Infrastructure Limited.
8.6 Discussion
8.6.1 Discussion of plant performance
The Fletcher Concrete site at Stratford is generally well managed. The ponds in the
concrete truck washing area were well managed and appeared to be operating
effectively. Staff on site had a good knowledge of the stormwater drainage system.
Works had previously been carried out in the 2002-2003 monitoring year to ensure
that the untreated stormwater from the sludge and waste concrete storage areas does
not discharge to the unnamed tributary of the Kahouri Stream. Further works are
proposed to increase the capacity of the waste-water and stormwater storage, and
initiate recycling in the plant.
An Environmental Management Manual has been produced by Fletcher Concrete. It
is a generic document for all concrete batching plants operated by the Company.