The council's 2007 coastal permit is a two-page consent that includes six conditions.
Condition number 4 reads: "The public shall not have access to either the breakwater or the causeway."
"The consent condition does require that the Waitaki District Council bar public access to the breakwater. This condition has not been met, and ORC has not taken enforcement action over it historically," ORC regulatory general manager Peter Winder said.
"We will work with [Waitaki District Council] to look at their options for meeting this condition, or to establish a variation enabling safe public access."
Waitaki District Council assets group manager Neil Jorgensen said the council would investigate its next steps.
"We haven't been aware of that consent with that issue, and I guess the ORC weren't aware of it either, because we did quite a lot of publicity around it when we were opening up the breakwater for people to walk on.
"There's been a lot of staff changes and things over the years, I guess.
"Thanks for bringing that to our attention."
In the past, the council has also claimed the adjacent "wee beach", which it locks off access to at night, is part of the breakwater rather than a public beach.
