Sign In / Register
An initial visit to the site where Waste Management NZ (WM) plans to put a giant new landfill only succeeded in confusing judges and commissioners, the Environment Court heard last week.
Resuming the appeal hearings against the granting of resource consent on Monday, July 25, Judge Jeff Smith made an impassioned plea for a decent topographical map that showed clearly where everything was planned to go.
He said visiting the steeply ridged site that lies between the Wayby and Dome Valleys had left the panel of two judges and three commissioners confused on a number of levels, from where sediment ponds and stockpiles would go to how many streams would be lost and internal roads required.
“There’s a great deal of confusion in the court on what areas are adversely affected. We’ve no idea how much stream length will be lost within the landfill footprint,” Smith said.
“We couldn’t find where the leachate would be sited, or the pipes from there, which are crucial. We need some more information not clearly shown on the maps.
“We need a proper topographical map with a simple black line outlining where everything is. Last time, we had to buy our own. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask for one to be provided.”
He added that WM staff had been helpful in showing them around the site, though Smith appeared frustrated at not being able to get right into the valley where the rubbish would actually be dumped.
Judges Jeff Smith and Melinda Dickey, and Commissioners Kevin Prime, Glenice Paine and Dr Ruth Bartlett had also driven up to the end of Spindler Road in Wayby Valley – something that would have been impossible last week, as it was completely submerged by flood waters. The group also went out to the mouth of the River and the Puatahi marae.
WM lawyer Balthazar Matheson said he would provide information requested by the judge in “a day or so’s time”.
During his opening submissions, Fight the Tip Tiaki Te Whenua’s lawyer Andrew Braggins outlined the legal, planning, environmental and logistical arguments that would be presented by the group’s expert and local witnesses over the coming weeks.
These included questioning whether the landfill was needed at all, due to there still being ample capacity at several other sites, as well as the need for it to be sited in the proposed valley, not least since the three biggest landfills serving Auckland were all in ex-mines or quarries.
Braggins said witnesses would attest to the unsuitability of the site’s soil, topography and high rainfall, with the land acting like a sponge and springs appearing under the landfill site.
“So, part of your case is that they have underestimated not just the amount of rainfall, but the way in which it can concentrate?” Judge Smith asked, which Braggins confirmed.
“There seem to be signs that the weather patterns in Northland, which isn’t far, are getting ‘droughtier and peakier’,” Smith added.
