20048 (2026). Lan Pham to the Minister of Local Government

20048 (2026). Lan Pham to the Minister of Local Government: At what point, if any, in the development of the wastewater environmental performance standards was public health advice sought on the standards?

Hon Simon Watts: The proposals in the discussion document relating to wastewater standards were informed by a range of experts, including the Public Health Agency, the National Public Health Service, and a technical review group comprising a broad range of experts that included leading industry professionals from councils, iwi / Māori, sector groups such as SafeSwim, and environmental scientists. This led to a number of public health measures being incorporated in the discussion document that took a precautionary approach to safeguard human health (including a focus on areas of risk, such as areas of potential human contact with wastewater discharges on land or in water, and in relation to food gathering areas such as shellfish). There was public consultation on the discussion document, together with extensive targeted engagement with technical experts and other stakeholders during the development of initial proposals and following consultation. The Water Services Authority – Taumata Arowai received submissions from a broad range of submitters on the public health outcomes sought by the standards. The detailed requirements incorporated in the wastewater standards include a range of established approaches that provide a precautionary approach to safeguard public health. Safeguards proposed in the discussion document, which were further refined following public consultation and further targeted engagement from experts, include: • the discharge to water standard was developed having regard to the Ministry for the Environment’s contact recreation guidelines, calculated from the Microbiological Assessment Category (MAC), and requires a quantitative microbial risk assessment to be performed wherever a discharge point is within 4km of a shellfish gathering area; • the discharge to land standard includes a range of protections where human contact might occur in or close to areas where effluent is irrigated to land; • the overflows standard is based on the SafeSwim model, and requires a risk-based approach to overflows to be implemented in network consents, together with transparent monitoring and public reporting of overflows; • the biosolids standard is based on well-established Water New Zealand guidelines for reuse of biosolids, which have been developed by leading professionals that include public health expertise. This standard includes a range of protections to ensure that public health risks relating to application of biosolids to land are well managed.