Volume One 16. Waste Information on the impacts of illegal dumping on the environment will be provided to the community. The information can be provided by a variety of means, including signage in public areas. [RPS, R] 16.M.13 Advocacy Advocate for national funds to support initiatives to better manage solid waste in remote locations. [RPS, R] 16.M.14 Community support Support community initiatives to remove solid waste that has accumulated in remote locations, especially the Marlborough Sounds and remote rural locations in South Marlborough. Issue 16B – The discharge of liquid wastes onto or into land has the potential to adversely affect the surrounding environment. Note that the discharge of contaminants to water is dealt with in Chapter 15 - Resource Quality (Water, Air, Soil). A strong rural economy and a prevalence of residential living in rural and coastal environments mean that a wide variety of liquid wastes are created in Marlborough. These include: • domestic wastewater; • dairy shed effluent; • winery wastewater; and • vegetable and shellfish processing wastewater. These liquid wastes contain a variety of potential contaminants including solids, nutrients, bacteria, viruses and substances that change soil properties. Fortunately, the combination of favourable soil properties and the dry climate in Marlborough make the discharge of liquid wastes to land a viable option. For this reason, the provisions of the water quality chapter strongly encourage the discharge of these and other contaminants to land in preference to water, in order to maintain and enhance water quality in our rivers, lakes, wetlands, aquifers and coastal waters. When this happens, the soil resource effectively becomes part of the treatment system, with contaminants in the liquid waste being broken down or absorbed as the wastewater passes through the soil. The capacity of the soil resource to treat or absorb contaminants is determined by the physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil. As Marlborough’s soil resource is diverse, there is variation in treatment capacity across the District. Understanding this variation is critical to avoid the adverse effects of discharging contaminants to land. If the rate of discharge exceeds the hydraulic capacity of the soil, then wastewater will pond on the ground surface and, if on a slope, potentially run off. This creates an obvious health hazard and a risk of contamination of nearby surface water bodies. Discharges to steeper slopes, especially slopes already prone to instability, can increase instability and threaten people and property. The substances and solids present in wastewater can accumulate in soil and increase to levels that adversely affect soil quality. In turn, this can affect the ability of the soil to continue to be used as a land application area or for productive purposes in the future. Shallow soils and soils with high gravel/sand content have limited capacity to treat bacteria, viruses and some nutrients present in wastewater, creating the risk of contamination of groundwater beneath or surface water in close proximity to the land application area. Liquid waste also has the tendency to become anaerobic (lacking in oxygen), which can cause odours around the treatment system or land application area. 16 – 9