Trade Waste Bylaw
The Masterton, Carterton and South Wairarapa District Councils (Wairarapa District Councils) are seeking feedback on Part Eleven: Trade Waste of the Wairarapa Consolidated Bylaw. Submissions are open for two months and close at 4pm Friday 25 July 2025.
Part Eleven: Trade Waste is proposed to replace Part Nine: Trade Waste of the Wairarapa Consolidated Bylaw 2019 which will expire next year. Consultation on the remaining parts of the Consolidated Bylaw will open on 25 June 2025.
Trade waste is liquid waste (excluding domestic wastewater), with or without solids in suspension, that is or may be discharged from a trade premise. Trade waste includes wastewater that contains contaminants, including solids, fat, oil, grease, solvents, emulsions and chemicals resulting from industrial or trade processes.
The wastewater drainage network can be adversely impacted by customer activity, causing potential damage to infrastructure or creating health and safety and/or environmental concerns.
Consultation opens on 23 May and will close at 4pm on Friday 25 July 2025. If adopted, the Bylaw will come into force on 1 October 2025.
Proposed changes
The proposed changes aim to better protect the Council’s water supply and wastewater networks. We propose that applications from trade premises to discharge prohibited trade waste to the network are not accepted due to the harm it can cause.
The key documents and an outline of the proposed changes can be found on this page.
Part one: Introductory
Part One includes definitions and provisions of a general nature which apply to all parts of the Bylaw. It removes the need to repeat general content in every part which reduces the possibility of contradiction throughout the Bylaw.
| Bylaw Section | Description of Proposal | Reason for Proposal |
| Serving of Orders and Documents | Amended process for serving of orders and documents to align with the process established under the Resource Management Act 1991. | - Improved consistency across Council processes. - Covers service of orders and documents for a wider range of recipients such as businesses, rather than just natural persons. |
Part eleven: Trade Waste
Part Eleven provides the necessary regulatory support to manage wastewater services for non-domestic uses (e.g. trade businesses). This part ensures the wastewater network is not adversely impacted by customer activity which could cause potential damage to infrastructure or create health and safety and/or environmental concerns.
| Bylaw Section | Description of Proposal | Reason for Proposal |
| Foreword and Purpose | Amended foreword to state that the bylaw is made under section 145 of the LGA (in addition to section 146). Amended purpose to state Part Eleven provides for the protection of public health and safety, protection of the environment, and protection of the Wastewater Drainage Network against damage. | - Section 145 of the LGA enables Councils to make bylaws to maintain public health and safety. The proposed bylaw and updated purpose align with this. |
| Hazardous Substances | Amendment to state if a hazardous substance leaks, spills or otherwise enters the Wastewater Drainage Network that the occupier of the premise must immediately notify the Wastewater Authority. | - Notifying the Wastewater Authority ensures appropriate action is undertaken to protect the Wastewater Drainage Network. |
| Classification of Trade Waste (Prohibited Trade) | Amendment to state that the Wastewater Authority will not approve applications for prohibited trade waste. | - Prohibited trade waste is harmful to the wastewater drainage network. - No applications to accept prohibited trade waste have been received since the bylaw was made in 2019. - Consistent with approach of other councils. |
| Tankered Wastes | Amendment to state a person wishing to operate a Tankered Waste trucking system must be certified by the New Zealand Trade and Industrial Waters Forums as complying with the Liquid and Hazardous Wastes Code of Practice, hold a Certificate of Registration for Offensive Trade or resource consent, and hold a consent to discharge trade waste under this part of the bylaw. | - Aligns approach across the Wairarapa District Councils. - Mitigates issues whereby blockages in the private network have been moved downstream to the public network in the course of clearing it. |
| Ownership, maintenance and customer responsibilities | New section which sets out the ownership, maintenance and other responsibilities of customers relating to wastewater. This consolidates clauses previously distributed throughout the Bylaw. This has also amended the Bylaw to state the Wastewater Authority owns and maintains public laterals and is responsible for structural faults to public laterals but the customer is responsible for blockages that occur in public laterals. | - Clarifies minimum standards under the Liquid and Hazardous Wastes Code of Practice, Resource Management Act 1991 and other regulatory requirements. |
| Fees and Charges | Removed reference to the specific manner in which Council will undertake invoicing and stated Council will undertake invoicing in accordance with its standard practice. | - Simplifies the bylaw. |
| Authorised Offices Service of Documents Schedule – Summary of Discharge Characteristics | Removed these sections from this bylaw part. | - Removes duplication as these sections are covered by the LGA, or Part One – Introductory. - Removing the Summary of Discharge Characteristics Schedule minimises risks of contradictory information between the schedule and bylaw. It also minimises risk of a person considering compliance with this schedule fulfils compliance with the full bylaw requirements. |
Have your say
Consultation opened on 23 May and will close at 4pm on Friday 25 July 2025.
Feedback can be provided in a number of ways:
- Completing an online submission form
- Downloading a fillable submission form and emailing it to: submissions@mstn.govt.nz
- Phoning the Masterton team on 06 370 6300 between 9am and 4pm Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays) and tell us what you think.
A Hearing will be held on 14 August for anyone who would like to speak to their submission. The Wairarapa Policy Working Group will deliberate on 19 August, with the Bylaw expected to take effect from 1 October 2025.
