News that the council is in breach of its own resource consents for the Te Maunga sludge ponds is causing a stir.

'We all have to start paddling in the same direction,” says drainage services team leader Wally Potts.

The pressure is on the Te Maunga ponds. File photo.

The comment was made in reply to committee member Tama Hovell's request for an explanation surrounding issues with the Te Maunga ponds.

'We missed it,” says Wally.

The requirement to decommission the sludge pond by 2012 was a line in one of the four consents which the ponds operate under.

The committee and staff have been focussed on the discharge consent that concentrated on decommissioning of the sludge pond during the course of the consent.

But there is also a consent that requires the pond to be decommissioned within seven years of the consent being granted.

'It was just a simple line like that and we missed it. We have got to be upfront. We just missed that clause.

'Now we are sitting here to resolve what we are going to do about it and how we can resolve this as quickly as possible. We missed it, everybody missed it. There's been two five-yearly reviews during that time. The reviewers missed it. The regional council missed it. We missed it.”

Wally says they have to decide what they're going to do about the issue, and how they are going to resolve it as quickly as possible.

'Now what we really need to do is start paddling in the same direction.”

Tama says it's not a great explanation, particularly when tangata whenua committee members have repeatedly asked for and failed to receive an explanation of the exact requirements of the consents relating to decommissioning the Te Maunga ponds.

'So we have been asking this over time and there is a bit of a feeling, I think, among tangata whenua that (we have) essentially been ignored and dismissed,” says Tama.

'There is that concern and this is in a way evidence of that.”

The breach was admitted to tangata whenua and the Bay of Plenty Regional council in December 2015.

Councillors were briefed on December 16, February 15 and Wastewater Management Review Committee members were briefed on February 24.

The council is going to send Wally overseas for a month to look at options for dealing with biosolids, for the council to consider as part of a project rejigging its entire approach to how Tauranga's biosolids are dealt with in future.

The information gathering is expected to take until mid-June with decisions made in August for inclusion in the 2017/18 annual plan.