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A small community group at Whangateau has made a complaint to the Ombudsman over the failure of Auckland Council to take seriously its concerns about the impact development is having on the health of the Whangateau Harbour.
Once described as one of the most pristine waterways in the Auckland region, Whangateau Harbourcare says nothing could now be further from the truth.
The volume of silt that continues to pollute the harbour and Omaha Bay has resulted in a substantial layer of mud across what were once sand flats. This has led to a proliferation of mangroves and, over time, the loss of cockle and pipi beds.
In June this year, the group wrote to the Council’s chief executive and other senior council managers, articulating its concerns and giving examples where Council was failing to uphold the policies and objectives of its own Unitary Plan.
The letter said, “In essence, Council is overseeing the destruction of this unique environment. It cannot keep cramming development into this fragile area without applying, monitoring and enforcing appropriate rules after consulting locals”.
The letter also cited numerous examples of ill-conceived development on steep and slip-prone ground, earthworks exceeding legal limits, bulldozing of esplanade reserve land and destruction of mangroves, poor silt management on construction sites, sand removal from Omaha spit, pollution run-off from roads, parking areas and other hard surfaces, and discharge of untreated sewage.
In a lengthy response in August, signed by a Council customer resolutions manager, the group was told that research found that fine sediments were not significantly increasing relative to earlier Council surveys in the estuary. The group was referred to data on the Land Air Water Aotearoa website
www.lawa.org.nz
It shows that the mud count at the four monitoring sites in the harbour was low, but interestingly, the highest reading, at a site just off Point Wells, has only be monitored once in 2016.
Much of the letter recounted established Council goals and aspirations and reiterated Council policies and processes. On the issue of resource consent monitoring, the letter said a project called Closing the Gap, which aims to reduce sediment discharge from small building sites across the region, had visited Whangateau 16 times in the past three years.
“The project team found that compliance in the Whangateau area was generally high, with only one abatement notice issued as part of these inspections,” the letter said.
“A Strategic Approach to Sediment programme is also underway to help with identifying strategic initiatives across the broad range of Council disciplines to better integrate and enhance underlying Council activities and outcomes directed at reducing sediment discharges. One of the outcomes of that programme has been to support increased resourcing for the proactive compliance team in recent years.”
In response to Council’s letter, the Harbourcare group wrote back saying that although they appreciated the time and research involved, it appeared Council did not “quite understand our concerns”.
They said the responses tried to make it sound as if all was well.
“What we are saying is that all those words are not being supported by actions. We would have appreciated individual responses from the senior staff to whom our letter was addressed. This would have enabled us to appreciate the extent to which they understand our concerns.”
The group was also concerned about the statement that fine sediments were not significantly increasing relative to earlier council surveys.
“If their policies and documents were effective this should read ‘significantly decreasing’,” the harbourcare said.
One committee members also commented that after examining the report on the Auckland East Coast Monitoring Programme they were concerned to see that in the sampling of Whangateau Harbour there was no regular sampling of the site near the point at the entrance to Tramcar Bay.
“Council should consult with locals to determine where best to locate these sites. Currently this site is showing 10% to 20% sediment levels.”
The harbourcare group is asking the Ombudsman to direct senior staff to respond to their concerns directly, and not through a third party.
