The Otago Regional Council has responded to a record number of incidents, mostly from the public reporting concerns about harm to their environment.
In the 12 months from July 1 last year, the council's environmental services unit responded to 1314 reports, up by 95 incidents from the year before and by 405 from 2008-09, a report to the council's regulatory committee said.
About half the incidents reported related to air issues such as odour (307), domestic heating (191) and backyard burning (103) and about 29% related to water issues, mostly to do with freshwater pollution (293).
Council regional services group manager Jeff Donaldson said incidents had risen from 834 in 2001 to 1314 in 2010-11. The biggest increases in incidents reported related to water, from 167 to 380, and the coast, from 32 to 62.
"Of interest in trends is ... the ongoing rise in received water pollution incidents that staff have responded to and the increase in odour, burning and domestic chimney incidents."
Reasons for the sharp rise in incidents since the 2008-09 year could be attributed, in part, to the increase in calls from the public, he said.
"There seems to be an awareness and appreciation from members of the public that any perceived environmental harm is no longer acceptable."
Internally, staff had better reporting and recording mechanisms, with the regional services data team taking the calls, vetting them and assisting in the co-ordination of response for environmental services field staff.
"The use of personnel in the data team has greatly enhanced staff response times."
