Cost of remediating environmental incidents
New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties made this Official Information request to New Zealand Transport Agency
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From: New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties
Dear New Zealand Transport Agency,
Please provide information on the five environmental incidents over the three fiscal years 2020-21, 2021-2022, and 2022-2023 which were the most costly for NZTA in terms of the remediation measures they led to which NZTA paid for, or records containing that information. We are looking for the total cost per incident of the remediation measures and any report you prepared on each incident.
Under section 16(2) of the OIA our preferences are (a) to receive a copy of the whole document (b) that the information is disclosed in a text searchable format, either Word or PDF, and (c) that it is sent to the email address from which the Agency received this request.
If the Agency decides that there is 'good reason' under the OIA to withhold any of the information we are requesting, then under section 19(a)(ii) of the OIA, we further request that the Agency provide us with the grounds in support of each instance of a withholding reason cited for refusal. Guidance for agencies on how to meet their section 19(a)(ii) obligations is available from the Ombudsman at this location: https://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/reso...
If you need to clarify anything in relation to this request, please get in touch.
Yours faithfully,
New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties
From: Official Correspondence
New Zealand Transport Agency
Kia ora New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties
This email acknowledges your below request for information made under the
Official Information Act 1982.
Your request has been forwarded to the appropriate section of NZ Transport
Agency Waka Kotahi for response. They will contact you if they require
clarification of your request, more time to respond, or if your request
has been transferred to another organisation to respond to. Unless more
time is required, NZ Transport Agency will send a response to you within
20 working days of receiving your request – in this instance on or before
22 July 2025.
If you would like to discuss your request with NZ Transport Agency, please
contact us by email at [1][NZTA request email].
Ngâ mihi
Ministerial Services
Te Waka Kôtuia | Engagement & Partnerships
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi
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From: Official Correspondence
New Zealand Transport Agency
Kia ora,
Thank you for your recent request under the Official Information Act 1982
for the following:
…provide information on the five environmental incidents over the three
fiscal years 2020-21, 2021-2022, and 2022-2023 which were the most costly
for NZTA in terms of the remediation measures they led to which NZTA paid
for, or records containing that information. We are looking for the total
cost per incident of the remediation measures and any report you prepared
on each incident…
Could you please clarify the following:
1. By ‘environmental incidents’ do you mean weather related events, or
events like chemical spills, or something else?
2. And would you like to receive the five most expensive events per
period, resulting in you receiving information on a total of 15
incidents, or the five most expensive events across the entire period
2020-2023, resulting in you receiving information on a total of 5
incidents.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Ngâ mihi
Ministerial Services
Te Waka Kôtuia | Engagement & Partnerships
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi
[1]Connect with us on Social Media
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References
Visible links
1. https://www.nzta.govt.nz/contact-us/conn...
2. https://nzta.govt.nz/
From: New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties
Dear NZTA,
Thanks for your email seeking clarification of our OIA request.
Answering your questions in turn:
1) We would define “incident” broadly, as including both natural and more man-made events. So both weather-related events and chemical spills would be included.
2) We are looking for the 5 most expensive incidents over the three fiscal years, not 15 incidents.
Yours sincerely,
New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties
From: Official Correspondence
New Zealand Transport Agency
Kia ora,
Thank you for requesting information under the Official Information Act
1982.
Regarding the reports you have requested, we have been advised that there
are hundreds of reports related to these events. Could you please clarify
what specific details you are looking for from the reports to help us
narrow this down?
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Ngā mihi
Ministerial Services
Te Waka Kōtuia | Engagement & Partnerships
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi
[1]Connect with us on Social Media
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From: Official Correspondence
New Zealand Transport Agency
Kia ora
Please find attached the response to your request of 24 June 2025 for
information under the Official Information Act 1982.
Ngā mihi
Ministerial Services
Te Waka Kōtuia | Engagement & Partnerships
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi
[1]Connect with us on Social Media
[2][IMG]
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From: New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties
Dear NZTA,
Thank you for your 22 July 2025 response to our request of 24 June 2025.
I am afraid that we have only just seen your 15 July 2025 request for additional information from the Council ("Regarding the reports you have requested, we have been advised that there are hundreds of reports related to these events. Could you please clarify what specific details you are looking for from the reports to help us narrow this down?), we were interested in NZTA's choice of what reports to provide.
When NZTA tells us that there is not a single report (i.e. a kind of 'capstone' report) on an environmental incident that led to the spending of $1.744 billion (the NIWE) or for the other four events the agency provided cost information on (the least costly of which was $36 million), we are puzzled that there would be no report pulling together the 'lessons learned' or overview. How, for example, was the spending on these incidents reported to the NZTA Board?
Yours sincerely,
New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties
From: Official Correspondence
New Zealand Transport Agency
Kia ora
This email acknowledges receipt of your correspondence.
Your correspondence has been forwarded to the appropriate section of NZ
Transport Agency Waka Kotahi, and a response will be provided to you as
soon as possible.
If you would like to contact us about this, please respond to us by email
at [1][NZTA request email].
Ngā mihi
Ministerial Services
Te Waka Kōtuia | Engagement & Partnerships
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi
[2]Connect with us on Social Media
[3][IMG]
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