Bell Island treatment plant ‘a toilet in our kitchen’ – iwi
The Bell Island wastewater treatment plant is like having a toilet in the kitchen, a Te Tauihu iwi says.
Darren Horne of Te A¯ tiawa presented to the resource consent hearing panel for the plant, opposing the 35-year duration of the new consents that have been applied for.
The Nelson Regional Sewerage Business Unit (NRSBU) applied in 2017 for five consents crucial for the operation of the plant. Horne said Te A¯ tiawa had been for the most part left out of the consultation process, and the NRSBU had dealt primarily with an organisation that represented the other seven iwi of the rohe (region).
He said the Waimea Inlet area had been fought over by iwi, and many sites on or around Bell Island were the sites of battles, urupa¯ (burial sites), and other important areas.
Horne said the mana of Te A¯ tiawa was damaged by the degradation of the area the iwi had a duty to protect as kaitiaki.
‘‘It’s paru (soiled). That’s a word we try not to use, as it degrades our mana.’’
He said the outflow from the plant, no matter how treated it was, as akin to putting a toilet in the kitchen of a house.
‘‘In our eyes, if you mix paru with good, then they’re both bad.
‘‘A toilet has been put in our kitchen, and naturally for us, it needs to be removed.’’
Horne said that before European settlement and the degradation of the environment, the kaimoana resources of the rohe had added to the mana of the iwi and the region.
The ultimate goal for Te A¯ tiawa was to restore the area to its former glory, he said.
‘‘Te A¯ tiawa have not been able to harvest from these areas in my lifetime, and I’m 48. My grandparents used to live off this land . . . this influences our mana, it’s degrading, and it affects our role as kaitiaki.’’
Horne asked that the iwi be included in the monitoring of the inlet area. It had already developed a framework of Cultural Health Indicators which would compliment the scientific monitoring. It was not just from a desire to take guardianship back over the area, but also to protect people who might be harvesting kaimoana, he said.
Hearing panel chair Sharon McGerry said the iwi was in a position to put forward a suggested consent condition to codify that desire into a binding agreement with the NRSBU.
The iwi’s submission came on the third day of the resource consent hearing.
Over the course of the hearing, consent conditions have been added, but the uniting feature of most submissions against the application, including Te A¯ tiawa’s, was the length of the consent. Horne said a maximum of 15 years would be preferable.
Best Island resident Mark Quinn suggested a 10-year consent. He said that during the 20 years he had lived on neighbouring Best Island, there had frequently been a ‘‘terrible smell’’, and it was only after the resource consent application was lodged in 2017 that there had been any improvement.
Quinn was concerned that a long-term consent would leave Best Island residents at the mercy of future managers who might not take maintenance and smell reduction seriously.
The hearing panel will make a decision next year.