Dump decision delayed as protesters go to Parliament

Fight the Tip’s Michelle Carmichael and Sue Crockett’s presentation was screened live from the Environmental Select Committee.

The long-awaited news on whether Waste Management (WM) will be allowed to build a vast new regional landfill in the Dome Valley was again delayed last week, as the hearing panel grappled to come to a decision.

The five independent commissioners were originally set to make their announcement 15 working days after the hearings into WM’s resource consent and private plan change applications officially closed in late March.

That timeframe was extended to 30 working days “due to the scale and complexity of the matter”, meaning the decision was due last Wednesday, May 12. However, Auckland Council principal project lead Warwick Pascoe could only announce then that the hearing panel was still working on both decisions.

“It may not be released until later this week, or possibly early next week,” he said. “The panel has also advised that it will issue the decision for the resource consent first, and the decision on Plan Change 42 will come later, probably this month.”

Both announcements had originally been due to be made at the same time.

Mr Pascoe apologised, and said he appreciated the delay was “most unfortunate, given the extremely high level of interest”.

Fight the Tip: Tiaki Te Whenua executive Michelle Carmichael said the delay and order of announcement was interesting.

“Hopefully, it indicates a positive outcome for our environment, not just locally, but nationwide,” she said. “After all, a precedent on not siting landfills on waterways and aquifers could be set here.”

She added that it would be good to know why the decision announcements would now be made at different times.

Meanwhile, Michelle and fellow executive member Sue Crockett were at Parliament in Wellington on May 6 to present evidence to the Environmental Select Committee in support of their petition to ban landfills near waterways anywhere in New Zealand.

Local MPs Chris Penk and Marja Lubeck were there to hear the women’s 10-minute presentation, which outlined the dangers posed to the environment and the “systemic nationwide failure” to protect waterways in NZ from proposed landfills.

Quoting from existing legislation and government guidelines, they outlined numerous instances of why waterways needed protecting, and how the resource management process had consistently failed to protect them.

“We understand the need to manage our waste. However, we should not be putting landfills near waterways. Even though modern landfills have improved engineering systems compared to historic landfills, liner systems do not last forever, and there still remains the ‘unknown event’ to cause a failure,” Ms Carmichael concluded. “Have we learnt nothing from the Fox River and Hampton Downs landfill disasters?”

Speaking afterwards, she said they had tried their best to cover all the issues facing the Dome Valley, the local community and iwi, and she had been impressed by the engagement and knowledge shown by committee members.

“I hope we’ve made a difference. This is one spoke in our wheel for trying to stop irresponsible environmental decisions.”