Nearly 100 Otago resource consents involving effluent and odour discharge and water takes have been found to be non-compliant, with potential effects on the environment.
The Otago Regional Council's compliance team carried out 810 audits of 718 activities and reviewed 2335 consent conditions for performance monitoring relating to 697 consents in the 12 months to June.
The audits revealed two areas of concern - water meter installation and discharge and water takes.
Environmental services manager Martin King said in a report to the council's regulatory committee the level of compliance found with discharge and water take consents was "of concern".
Of the 358 consents monitored, only 38.3% fully complied with their consent conditions.
"Of concern are the 91 consents that were found to have potential effects on the environment."
The 25% non-compliance related to poor performance of effluent systems, poor effluent quality going into the environment, air quality discharges not being met, offensive and objectionable odour going beyond boundaries and water takes being outside of the consented area, Mr King said.
Where grade four and five non-compliance (potential to affect environment) was identified, the council had sought written explanations from the consent-holder and asked for remedial action plans where needed.
Council group manager regional services Jeff Donaldson said the audits also showed some meters had not been installed correctly and in some cases it resulted in some consent-holders not sending their installation certification in on time.
The audit showed 11 consent holders were fully compliant (grade 1) while eight were graded between two and four (the worst being five).
Consent-holders needed to remember they were liable for any issues with faulty installation, not their installer, Mr Donaldson said.
They were required by resource management regulations brought in last year to install water meters and depending on the amount of their take, they had from November next year to 2016 to do so.
