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A Court of Appeal hearing which could decide whether the fast track application for the controversial Auckland Regional Landfill in the Dome Valley proceeds was held last week, although any decision could be weeks or even months away.
Forest and Bird is appealing the Environment Court’s 2023 decision to allow the landfill to go ahead, citing Auckland Unitary Plan protections for rivers and streams.
The proposed landfill is 80 hectares and would collect around half of Auckland’s annual waste – but about 12 kilometres of streams in the valley would be destroyed within its footprint.
In a statement, WM New Zealand, formerly Waste Management, said it lodged its request with Government for the ARL to be referred to the fast-track approvals pathway, while continuing to prepare its substantive fast-track application to extend the use of its Redvale landfill.
The Redvale extension is needed because of legal appeals over the ARL, says the company. That meant the planned opening date of 2028 is now more likely to be in the mid 2030s “so we’ll need to continue to use Redvale after the current consent ends in December 2028,” said the statement.
But WM says If the Court of Appeal case is abandoned or quickly dismissed, then the company would stay within the Resource Management Act process as the faster option.
“For ARL, fast-track is about creating an option if we face further appeal delays. We certainly haven’t cut corners – it was first consented in 2021 after a public process under the RMA but has been continually delayed by legal appeals,” says WM managing director Evan Maehl.
He added WM’s use of the fast-track process for ARL has the full support of the Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust with its chair Mook Hohneck viewing it as positive for iwi.
But at July’s Rodney Local Board kaumata Mikaera Miru representing Waiaotea Marae on the northern Kaipara, made a submission, saying: “The fast track process is a channelling process of power upwards to a handful of people to talk over rather than engage with the people.”
He said the Resource Management Act required anyone exercising RMA powers to recognise and provide for “the relationship of Māori and their culture and traditions with their ancestral lands, water, sites, waahi tapu and other taonga.”
He added that a rahui placed on the landfill site in June, 2019 was still valid.
“The rahui stands as a beacon of customary Māori law to protect the environment for current and future generations. It is not open for manipulation by individuals or entities. It was applied under tikanga Māori where Māori and pakeha all came together to protect the environment and endangered species.”
