Group loses poison appeal
A Nelson community group’s appeal against the aerial discharge of toxins in the Brook Valley has been dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
Following the decision on Tuesday, the Brook Valley Community Group will now have to pay more than $70,000 in court costs.
However, chairman Christopher St Johanser said the fight was not over. ‘‘We get knocked down and we get up again,’’ he said.
Brodifacoum-laced baits were dropped in 2017 by the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary Trust inside its fenced wildlife sanctuary to eradicate pests, as part of a programme to foster the return of native species. Used mainly as a rodent control poison, brodifacoum operates by affecting the blood clotting of birds and mammals.
The Brook Valley group attempted to stop the drop, going to the High Court in 2017 to seek an injunction and also pursue a wider case against the legality of the aerial discharge. However, the injunction bid was dismissed and the drops went ahead in September and October 2017, dropping 26.5 tonnes of brodifa coumlaced baits across the 691ha sanctuary.
The group then went to the Court of Appeal, to challenge the lawfulness of the bait drop and the costs imposed by the High Court.
Three respondents were involved – the sanctuary trust, along with the Minister for the Environment and the Nelson City Council, which both appeared to oppose the group’s claim.
The group had argued against the validity of the Resource Management (Exemption) Regulations which came into effect in April 2017, that allowed for the use of toxins such as brodifacoum for pest control.
According to section 15 of the RMA, contaminants are not to be discharged on to land or water, unless expressly allowed through national environmental standards, resource consent or other regulations.
Under the exemption regulations, an exemption was made for the discharge of brodifacoum when used for the purpose of killing vertebrate pests, on land protected by predator-proof fencing (or on an island other than the North Island or South Island).
The group further argued that even if the regulations were valid, resource consent was required under the act.
Nelson lawyer Sue Grey, who is acting on behalf of the Brook Valley group, said it was still ‘‘considering all its options’’ after the decision.
Grey said the Court of Appeal had adopted a very different logic from the lower court.
‘‘It appears to have decided that statutory restrictions on depositing a poison or other contaminant on a riverbed can be ignored where the contaminant can be legally discharged.
‘‘The Brook community hopes that the Minister for the Environment will urgently review the full implications of this decision and include former minister Nick Smith’s 2017 exemption regulations in the RMA reforms that have been flagged for next year.’’
Sanctuary trust general manager Hudson Dodd said the trust was reviewing the decision with its legal team and co-respondents, ‘‘but on the surface we’re pleased that the appeals court upheld the decision of the High Court’’.
The sanctuary reopened to the public in July after the pest control operations. At the time, trust coordinator Kat Willcocks said at least 14 individual pest species were cleared from the sanctuary as a result of the poison drops, including rats, stoats and deer.