Week 4 - Land

RMA purpose (Section 5 ) is to promote “sustainable management of resources” For activities on contaminated land this includes:

• Safeguarding the life-supporting capacity of air, water, soil, and ecosystems.
• Avoiding, remedying, or mitigating any adverse effects of activities on the environment.

Thus for contaminated land an AEE must assess the nature of the discharge and sensitivity of the receiving environment to adverse effects.  The National Environmental Standards (NES) for contaminated land can be accessed using this link - here

The National Environmental Standards (NES) include "Assessing and managing contamiinants in soil to protect human health".  As part of this standard, you may need to provide a preliminary site investigation to prove that the land is not contaminated  (if removing >25m³ soil).  There may be a number of OSH issues with both handling and disposal of contaminated land.  Often you can move contaminated land within the site boundaries as long as this activity is carefully controlled.

The RMA definition of environment includes: Ecosystems and their constituent parts, including people and communities (see table)

For this process, activities may be deemed permitted, controlled, restricted or discretionary where permitted activities represent the baseline.  In this case no Consent may be r required usually due to small scale, short duration or low health risk activities on contaminated land. Defined by NES Regulations and relevant Regional Plans

For activities that are Controlled, Restricted, or Discretionary

• If permitted activity criteria not met consent is required as defined by the NES regulations or Regional Plan Rules
• AEE will cover contaminant control and discharge etc
• PSI, DSI reports will also accompany consent.

For more info on contaminated land assessments - follow this link.