Dome Valley Tip/Dump - Environment Court hearing this week
Anita Savin for Matakana Coast App
25 July 2022, 8:30 PM
According to the Fight the Tip. Save the Dome Facebook group the Environment Court Timetable for Waste Management hearing is due to begin this week, with lawyer Andrew Braggins presenting their opening statement on the 25th July.
This session will be online so if you would like to watch it live you can here, by joining on your computer or mobile app:
This link will recur for the duration of the three weeks of the Waste Management hearing.
The session times are 10am - 5:30pm each day.
25 -29 July
1-5 August
8-12 August
IMPORTANT: Please ensure your microphone and camera are turned off.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/SavetheDome/permalink/5105228242923717/
Video footage of Hōteo River nearly bursting its banks with all the recent rain has emerged with many locals saying if the tip is to go ahead, Leachate is highly likely to end up in this river which flows directly to the Kaipara Harbour.
Leachate is formed when rainwater filters through wastes placed in a landfill. When this liquid meets buried wastes, it leaches, or draws out, chemicals or toxins from those wastes.
This would pollute the Harbour leading to a disaster for the environment, marine and bird life and people. The Kaipara Harbour is the largest breeding ground in the country for Snapper.
More than this Waste Management have only shown Hōteo river on their proposal map not many of the other streams and waterways that feed into the Hōteo which is approximately 14km.
But Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust acting chief executive Nicola MacDonald said, "Auckland Council needs to consider, is it proper, is it practice, to establish landfills that are adjacent to natural water sources?"
"Just like ourselves as human beings, we have veins. Veins carry everything that we need, all our nutrients to all parts of the body... there are little streams, little inlets that flow all around and into the Hōteo River. By closing these off, by damning these up, we suffocate the land."
Photo of Nicola Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust acting CEO Nicola MacDonald. Photo: Jessie Chiang
A brief history of the Dome Valley tip proposal
- Chinese interests who dominate the waste management sector in NZ got state consent to buy the massive 1,010ha Wellsford farm and forestry site (64% of it is American-owned).
- Consent was approved by Eugenie Sage (Green Party) and David Clark (Labour Party). The price paid has been permanently suppressed.
- The proposed 60-hectare dump would take four years to build and cover up about 14km of streams around the Hōteo River.
- Earthworks would cover more than 136 hectares and that would include building associated facilities, new roads and ponds.
- Waste Management put forward a range of measures to mitigate environmental impacts such as planting 10 hectares of native plants and "enhancement and/or protection" of 15km of identified streams inside its holdings.
- There are concerns raised from Judge Jeff Smith about if the proposal being granted to go ahead is only stage one of a much larger project. Questions remain if the dump would expand further than the initial 60h.
- There has been massive uproar and protests from local residents and iwi, which included petitions to parliament and a hīkoi up Queen Street in central Auckland that was attended by hundreds of people.
- Over 1000 submissions were made opposing the tip, however, has hasn’t made a difference to Auckland Council.
- Not only are there concerns for the environmental impact but also the area is habitat to the rare, threatened native Houstetter’s Frog and native bats. These will have to be relocated.
Save the Dome Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/groups/SavetheDome/permalink/5105228242923717/
If you would like to donate towards fighting the tip please go here
https://www.facebook.com/groups/SavetheDome/about
MANGAWHAI
