In 2009 Tauranga City Council (TCC) was granted by Bay of Plenty Regional Council (BoPRC) a resource consent authorising the continued occupation of space in the Coastal Marine Area (Tauranga Harbour) by existing wastewater infrastructure. A condition of the consent required TCC to participate in a Regional Council led Sewer Overflow Working Group to promote region-wide best practice when responding to sewer overflows associated with structures authorised under the consent.

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Overtime this group morphed into the current regional Wastewater Management Group that includes BoPRC, TCC, Toi Te Ora Public Health and 5 other territorial authorities within the region. The purpose of the group is to: promote best practise in responding to wastewater overflows; establish and standardise best practise for the response and reporting of wastewater overflow events; work towards best practise for mitigating overflow events; and create a non-statutory forum that fosters cooperation and a unified strategic approach to the long term management of wastewater overflows.

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In 2019 a memorandum of understanding was signed by all parties on the development of a Regional Best Practise Guide for the Management of Wastewater Overflows. Unexpected discharges of wastewater to water from wastewater networks are not authorised by resource consents within the region  and this agreement from the territorial authorities to follow the processes and protocols within the guide is a collaborative approach to compliance that requires each TA to actively take ownership of the process and work towards improving their response, reporting and notification of any overflows.

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