Consent holder responsibilities

A resource consent allows (subject to conditions) an activity that would otherwise be illegal. You are able to use the environment within the limits of the consent , whether that is the water you take or the assimilative capacity of the water or air you discharge into.

As a consent holder, you are now responsible for:

• complying with all the consent conditions
• paying all associated annual and monitoring charges
• notifying Waikato Regional Council of any changes to the consent holder details
• applying to change the consent to keep the conditions relevant should there be minor changes to your operation
• applying for a new consent should there be major changes to your activity or the consent expires.

Your resource consent is an important legal document. Keep your consent certificate in a safe place so you can refer to it when necessary.

Your consent conditions are designed to help protect the Waikato region’s natural environment for other users, both now and in the future.

If you do not follow the conditions of your consent you may:

• harm the environment
• affect other people and users
• distort information about the use and availability of our region’s natural resources
• be subject to enforcement action.

Waikato Regional Council treats non-compliance seriously, so if you breach the conditions of your consent, we may take enforcement action against you. You may be issued with an abatement notice that orders you to cease your activity or an infringement notice carrying a fine of up to $1000. In some cases, if the breach of consent or resulting adverse effects are serious enough, we may prosecute. In this case, you may be liable to a fine of up to $300,000 ($600,000 for companies) or 2 years jail.

Non-compliance usually ends up costing time, money and inconvenience for everyone involved.

In August 2023, the Government enacted its Natural and Built Environment Act 2023 (NBA) which introduced new compliance and enforcement powers to help protect and manage the environment and its resources.

The key compliance and enforcement changes in the NBA that will apply under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) from 24 August 2023 include:

• An increase to financial penalties for offending against the RMA.
  • For individuals, the maximum fine available increases from $300,000 to $1 million.
  • For companies, the maximum fine available increases from $600,000 to $10 million.
    
    
• An increase to the statute of limitations
  The limitation period for criminal offences increases from 12 months to 2 years. This means, as a regulator, the council has longer to take action against non-compliance.
  
  The limitation period for civil enforcement action is 6 years.
  
  

• Period of imprisonment reduced
  The maximum jail sentence that can be imposed against individuals has reduced from 2 years to 18 months. This removes the right for individuals to elect trial by jury, if prosecuted.
  
  
• Financial assurance may be required up front
  Resource users may be required to provide financial assurance as a condition of a resource consent or when a particular activity is being undertaken e.g. as a bond or proof of insurance to cover the cost of remediation or clean-up arising from an activity.
  
  
• A history of non-compliance can be taken into account
  Applications for resource consents can be declined on the grounds of a poor compliance history and consents may be suspended or revoked in response to non-compliance with consent requirements.
  
  
• Recovery of costs associated with permitted activity monitoring
  Council may now recover costs associated with permitted activity monitoring, investigations of non-compliance and prosecutions.

Other changes in the NBA include an increase to ancillary penalties associated with failing to give information to an enforcement officer and when there is what is considered to be a continuing offence.

Read more about the changes from the Ministry for the Environment.