My Account
A lengthy hearing against Waste Management NZ’s (WM) resource consent for a new regional landfill in the Dome Valley started in the Environment Court on June 20, with four days of opening submissions.
Lead Judge Jeff Smith made it clear from the start that the case would be long and complex, and said the nine weeks originally set aside over the next five months was ambitious.
He also made it clear that he had extensive knowledge of landfills and how they operated, having presided over several cases in the past, most recently fining Rotorua Lakes Council last year over a leachate spill.
After challenging WM counsel Balthazar Matheson on several issues, including the site’s capacity, its potential longevity and WM’s ability to prevent leachate leaks, Smith warned him that “this is not my first rodeo”.
When Matheson said WM expert witnesses would show why the company was confident that there would be no breach in the landfill’s polyethylene liner, Smith said water unexpectedly leaking or spilling from such sites had been “a major area of failing” in recent years.
“The same thing was said to me at Rotorua, and yet it occurred,” he said. “We were told the same thing at Kate Valley. I would like to know which landfills have performed to that level.”
Smith also wanted to know whether WM was intending to use the new landfill for rubbish from Kaipara, Whangarei and Northland Councils in future and whether those had been included in the calculation of waste volumes, and whether the landfill was the first stage in a much larger long-term scheme. (WM’s original brochure publicising its plans showed a possible future second valley on the map.)
The court heard that since the granting of resource consent in June last year, WM was planning new fenced pest exclusion areas and a pest eradication plan, new native revegetation and wetland areas, extra riparian planting and plans to protect a large area by covenant.
Auckland Council also came in for some testing questions by Smith, who seemed frustrated that its Unitary Plan made no provision for siting a landfill anywhere in the region.
“There’s a lack of clarity in the plan for where a landfill should go,” he said. “Council could of course designate land for landfill, but hasn’t done so.”
Appeals against Auckland Council and WM are being brought by community protest group Fight the Tip, as well as Ngati Manuhiri Settlement Trust, Te Runanga O Ngati Whatua, Ngati Whatua Orakei, Forest & Bird and the Department of Conservation.
The appeals are being heard by Judges Jeff Smith and Melinda Dickey, assisted by Commissioners Kevin Prime, Glenice Paine and Dr Ruth Bartlett.
The next sitting is set to start on July 25, when Fight the Tip is due to make its opening submissions. Other sittings will include a week on a marae in September and the final week is scheduled to start on November 28.
Airfield back in local hands
One of the first things the Environment Court heard was that the aerodrome at Springhill Farm was no longer part of the land owned by Waste Management (WM).
WM barrister Balthazar Matheson said ownership of 19 hectares of Springhill, comprising the airstrip and its immediate surrounds, had been transferred and sold to neighbours.
The purchasers were retired airline pilot Tim Harrison and his wife Carol, who live close by and whose company Sports Aircraft NZ now runs the airfield.
Harrison said the airfield retained its full resource consent, obtained by a former owner Richard Izard, and that both private and commercial flights were operating on a regular basis. He added that several aircraft and helicopters were based at Springhill and that fly-in days for local and visiting pilots would be held in the summer.
