Visions Consulting
Engineers Limited is an approved service provider for HAIL assessments with
the
Far North and
Whangarei District Councils. We are based in the Kerikeri area,
and service all of Northland. |
The National
Environmental Standards (NES) for Assessing and Managing Contaminants in
Soil to Protect Human Health (Resource Management Regulations 2011) is a
national regulation that councils are required to implement. This is to
ensure that contaminated soil is identified and assessed before change of
land use can be approved. The regulation will be applied upon application
for a permit, building consent, or resource consent.
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The Ministry
for the Environment has identified a number of industry, agriculture, and
horticultural activities which are known to have used hazardous substances
which could potentially contaminate the land. The Ministry keeps an updated
list of these activities known as HAIL activities (Hazardous Activities and
Industries List), which can be found at
www.mfe.govt.nz
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The existence of
contaminants in the soil becomes a concern when it is intended that the land
be built upon, food grown on, or nearby water used for consumption.
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We can assist to
determine if your property has historically been used for an activity on the
HAIL, and provide guidance to help work through the NES - HAIL assessment
process. |
We offer a four
phase investigation to minimise costs to our clients, and an obligation free
quote
- Phase 1: A property history investigation will be
conducted; this may result in the determination that your site is
unlikely to have had a HAIL activity, and no further investigation would
be needed. We would prepare a brief report for you to submit to Council
as proof.
- Phase 2: This phase may be needed if the results
of phase 1 are inconclusive. Building on the information gained during
phase 1 we would complete a detailed walkover assessment of the site and
if needed, preliminary soil sampling; to show that your property has not
had a HAIL activity.
- Phase 3: If phase 2 has shown that your site once
had a HAIL activity, legislation mandates soil sampling and analysis. We
would work with you to prepare a cost effective sampling plan for your
site, carry out the soil testing, and provide a summary report of our
findings. Hopefully the tests show that any contaminants present at the
site are below acceptable limits and no further work is needed. Our
report can then be submitted to Council showing that it is highly
unlikely that there will be risk to human health.
- Phase 4: If the testing in phase 3 finds that
contaminants are present and above acceptable limits for public health,
you may need to remediate the soil. We can work with you to provide
options for remediation and identify the solution best suited to your
situation.
Once the soil has been remediated, we can conduct validation sampling and reporting
for submission to council.
We can also assist owners with
applications for funding assistance for soil remediation.
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All work is carried out in
accordance with national and international standards and guidelines.
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