DoC set to appeal aquifer consents
The Department of Conservation has confirmed it will appeal the Northland Regional Council decision to grant consents for 17 applicants to take more than two million cubic metres of water a year from the Aupo¯uri aquifer to the Environment Court.
The consents allow for a total of 2,060,655 cubic metres to be taken annually across three ‘aquifer management sub-units’ — Waiparera (1,164,325), Motutangi (566,960) and Houhora (329,370) — by the Motutangi-Waiharara Water Users’ Group, the majority of them avocado growers.
The applicants had sought permission to take almost 2.5 million cubic metres annually from a deep shell bed layer of the aquifer.
The applications were notified on a limited basis to more than 1000 owners/occupiers of adjacent properties last October, with 42 of the 57 submissions opposing, eight supporting and seven neutral.
In its appeal DoC claims a lack of research of the aquifer and potentially severe effects on wetlands on the Aupo¯uri Peninsula.
Opponents’ concerns fell into eight broad categories — the volume of the proposed take, its effect on existing bores, water quality, ecological issues, salt water intrusion, lack of consultation, inadequacy of assessment and monitoring, and cultural issues.
Independent commissioners David Hill (chairman) and Peter Callander, who heard the applications on behalf of the NRC, including a three-day sitting in Kaitaia in March, accepted that the submitters had expressed a reasonable concern regarding the safety and security of the aquifer, the sole source of groundwater on the peninsula. And, based on evidence from the applicants, regional council experts and submitters, they were well aware that the aquifer was potentially vulnerable, “due to its connection to the sea and the variable amounts of rainfall recharge related to climatic changes and the clearing and planting of forestry blocks.”
The commissioners also noted there was a degree of uncertainty about the magnitude of change that might occur.