Iwi wants $50m compo for water, food supply contamination

Eastern Bay of Plenty iwi Ngati Rangitihi is planning to lodge a $50 million Waitangi Tribunal compensation claim for damage to one of their traditional food and water resources – the Tarawera River.

The tribe has held a series of meetings at Matata to work out their claims and discuss their opposition to resource consent applications by Norske Skog and Carter Holt Harvey to continue discharging effluent into the river, and gasses and dust to the air.

Ngati Rangitihi leader Tipene Marr said the loss of food resources caused by mill pollution added up to about $50 million for the families involved and that was what they would be seeking.

The Kawerau pulp and paper mills have been operating since the 1950s and for most of that time they were permitted to discharge wastes into the river and the air under a special enabling law.

Mr Marr said considering the Crown initially owned 51 percent of the Tasman mill and shared in the responsibility for the mill's pollution, it was fitting the compensation claim should go to the Waitangi Tribunal.

In the mid 1990s, the discharges came under the umbrella of the Resource Management Act.

EnvBOP, which is the Act's main administering body as far as mill pollution is concerned, has required higher standards for mill discharges.

Norske Skog Tasman and Carter Holt Harvey Tasman are seeking to renew their resource consents for their discharges at a two-week joint hearing by EnvBOP and Whakatane District Council.

However, Norske Skog and Carter Holt Harvey say they have cleaned up their discharges as far as the available technology has allowed them, and there is little further room for improvement at present.

Mr Marr said that was not good enough and Ngati Rangitihi would be calling for higher standards during the hearing.

For example, the iwi was seeking to have the river re-directed through the Matata lagoon.

However, the tribe appears likely to be disappointed.

In an overview of the legal issues arising from the hearing EnvBOP's counsel Paul Cooney told the hearing's committee that opposition to the consent applications on the grounds Treaty claims to the river would be compromised were "irrelevant".

The Green party, too, was likely to be disappointed. It wanted stricter control on greenhouse gasses emitted from the mill.

But Mr Cooney said the committee was not legally allowed to recognise the effects of such a discharge on climate change, because it was an issue to be dealt with at a national level.

Norske Skog and Carter Holt will receive 35-year terms for their consents if recommendations by EnvBOP staff members are approved.

The resource consent applications attracted about 36 submissions, most in opposition.

EnvBOP's staff recommendations on the applications are contained in the agenda for the hearing.

The mill owners sought 35-year terms – the maximum allowed under the Resource Management Act – to give them "operational certainty".

Carter Holt Harvey is seeking consents with appropriate conditions to give it the confidence it needs for a $50 million investment – upgrading its recovery boiler.

Special consent conditions recommended by EnvBOP staff members will allow the consents to be reviewed from time to time during the course of their 35-year terms.

- NZPA