A dust-up is brewing over responsibility for dealing with dust issues in urban Central Otago.
The issue arose at a recent Otago Regional Council compliance committee meeting, when Cr Duncan Butcher asked for an update on dust complaints.
A report to the committee showed there had been 13 dust complaints made in the year to date and two made in the six weeks to February 15 - one from the Clutha Plains, the other from Mosgiel.
ORC chief executive Graeme Martin said both the Central Otago District Council (CODC) and ORC had fielded public complaints about dust release from land disturbance caused by construction activities.
It was particularly an issue in urban areas like Cromwell, where there was a lot of development and subdivision in areas with fine soils.
As a result, there had been discussions with CODC staff regarding the issue but ‘‘there is a fundamental disagreement in philosophy'' over whose responsibility it was, he said.
The ORC's view was that people should not have to deal with both councils: ‘‘It's unnecessary'', he said.
The CODC could implement a bylaw to deal with it, a power the ORC lacked.
Cr Louise Croot said dust was a health issue and there was a provision under the environmental health legislation the CODC could use to deal with it.
Cr Butcher said it was very hard to explain to constituents where the responsibility lay, especially given it did not seem hard to put a condition in a land-use consent to suppress all dust.
The possibility ratepayers might also have to come to the ORC for consent would add to their costs, he said.
‘‘Why should they also come to the regional council? It seems simple.''
Cr Doug Brown said the issue was not going away and had to be dealt with.
CODC chief executive John Cooney said when contacted, the ORC had clear responsibility for dust as a contaminant to air under the Resource Management Act (RMA) and a number of other regional councils involved themselves in the issue.
The CODC had indicated to the ORC it was willing to discuss being involved in the control of dust through the appropriate consent process, he said. It had a secondary role to deal with it under the RMA.
‘‘We make it clear that a one-stop shop approach for dust issues would be the best outcome.''
However, these discussions were likely to founder if the ORC continued to represent the issue as a function CODC was fully responsible for, Mr Cooney said in a letter to Mr Martin on the issue.
