My Account
News that the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) approval for Waste Management to buy land in the Dome Valley for a proposed new landfill was granted by Green Party MP and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage has been greeted with shock and dismay by many local residents.
Ms Sage is also the Land Information Minister who, together with Associate Finance Minister David Clark, gave the go-ahead for Waste Management to buy more than 1000 hectares of farm and forestry land “because of the investment’s substantial and identifiable benefits”.
The decision summary released last month said the application had been for “an overseas investment in sensitive land … adjoining State Highway 1 near Wellsford, including the Springhill Farm and a part of the Mahurangi Forest”.
OIO approval was required because the ownership of Waste Management NZ is split between the People’s Republic of China (just over 83 per cent) and the Hong Kong Public (just under 17 per cent).
Wayby Valley resident Lee Laughton said he and the local community were “gobsmacked” at Ms Sage granting the purchase.
“Auckland city wants to be rubbish-free by 2040 … The streams that flow from this landfill (would) flow into NZ’s largest snapper breeding grounds, the Kaipara Harbour … Eugenie, how could you?” he wrote on Ms Sage’s Facebook page.
Ms Sage said the issues he mentioned were not part of the decision process under the Overseas Investment Act. She said Auckland Council would decide whether or not the landfill would proceed via the Resource Management Act consent process.
She did not respond to questions from Mahurangi Matters about the potential environmental impacts of a landfill in a sensitive rural environment, the effects of an additional 300 return truck movements a day and the sustainability of trucking Auckland’s waste 80km north of the city.
Meanwhile, the Fight the Tip, Save the Dome protest group was due to hold a public meeting and brainstorming session in Wellsford last Saturday, November 10, with Councillor Greg Sayers as guest speaker.
Group administrator Michelle Carmichael said teams were being formed to research every aspect of the proposed landfill and its implications, and to collate research already carried out.
