Review group to monitor mining
Environmental monitoring must be carried out for two years before any mining gets under way.
An independent review group will be set up to monitor the environmental effects of ironsand mining off the coast of Taranaki.
Earlier this month Trans Tasman Resources was granted a mining permit by the Environmental Protection Authority to mine 50 million tonnes of ironsand each year for 35 years, up to 36 kilometres off the coastline in the South Taranaki Bight.
The authority’s decision making committee attached 109 conditions to the marine consent, with the establishment of a technical review group among them.
The eight-member group will be made up of a Taranaki Regional Council senior manager and representatives from iwi, fisheries, oil and gas, and the Department of Conservation.
Another condition requires TTR to carry out environmental monitoring for two years before any mining gets under way and the review group will oversee this.
Information gathered during the monitoring phase will be used to compare against results during the actual mining process.
The monitoring will look at the effects of underwater noise, suspended sediment and fish life on the seabed.
The review group, which will be chosen six months before the monitoring begins, will have no powers of enforcement.
However, regional council director of resource management Fred Mclay said the Environmental Protection Authority, as consent authority, would have power to enforce TTR to abide by the conditions.
The idea for the group was part of the regional council’s submission during the mining hearings on the marine consent earlier this year, the council’s policy and planning committee, which meets on Tuesday, reported in its latest meeting agenda.
In its submission - which neither supported nor opposed the application - the council asked the hearing committee to be involved in the regulation of the mining activity, Mclay said. ‘‘The inclusion of a review group is partial fulfilment of this request.’’
The council had also told the hearing committee it would need to respond to any public complaints about the ironsand mining.
Any response would be a cost to the council and ratepayers, the council had said. As a result the authority ordered any costs to fall on the consent holder. The authority also said it would be responsible for dealing with complaints from the public.
Seabed environmental activist group, Kiwis Against Sea Bed Mining (KASM), would not comment on the review group.
‘‘KASM is not getting into discussions around the review group, or the detail of any conditions around seabed mining off the South Taranaki Bight,’’ Cindy Baxter said. ‘‘Right now our key focus is to stop the project from going ahead altogether, and our focus is concentrated on our appeal of the Environmental Protection Authority decision as a priority as the deadline is next week.’’