November 23, 2001
ERMA New Zealand Chief Executive, Dr Bas Walker has expressed disappointment with a press release issued by the Employers' and Manufacturers' Association which is misleading and unnecessarily negative.
ERMA New Zealand has not had $20m added to its budget, as indicated in the release. The additional funding allocated in the 2001 Budget was in fact $888,000 pa (ex GST), and it was made clear at the time that this would be insufficient to cover the full cost of the transfer project.
The statement in the release that the fees for hazardous substances have been twice the amount estimated is also quite misleading. In fact fees have been in the range estimated for hazardous substance rapid assessments and can be expected to decrease as experience is gained.
The Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) New Zealand has recently met with representatives from industry groups to discuss the best way to handle the transfer of up to 215,000 notified toxic substances or NOTS from the transitional part of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (HSNO) Act to the main framework of the Act.
It was predicted a year ago that ERMA New Zealand's Transfer Project, which comprises the identification of and assigning controls to existing hazardous substances, would be dealing with about 140,000 NOTS. However that number had escalated to 215,000 by start up of the hazardous substance regime on 2 July 2001.
ERMA New Zealand has five years from commencement of the HSNO Act to transfer these substances and has estimated that an extra $8m will be required to complete the process.
ERMA New Zealand Chief Executive, Dr Bas Walker says, "There is and there always has been a strong commitment from ERMA New Zealand to transfer all existing substances at no direct cost to the industry. However clearly are there issues to resolve in terms of funding available. There is nothing new about that and the transfer project was a major driver for the extra funding in the 2000/01 budget."
As a sensible step in taking account of these cost pressures, ERMA New Zealand will be asking industry to assist with the provision of full identification and hazardous property data. We will also look at possible ways of grouping products to streamline the process.
Priority will be given to transferring substances where full identification and hazardous property data are provided by industry or where data is available from easily accessible sources such as from the previous authorities, including OSH or MAF. "Access to information is the critical factor," said Dr Walker, "If full information can be readily obtained then issues of cost will be well on the way to being resolved."
For further information contact:
| Dr Bas Walker Chief Executive ERMA New Zealand Ph: 04 916 2426. |
Julie Watson Communications Manager ERMA New Zealand Ph: 04 918 4824 or Mob: 021 674 954. |