Kiwi sanctuary could derail pipeline
A controversial scheme to export New Zealand water in bulk will have to build a key pipeline by 2019, or reapply for an easement critical to the project.
Conservation Minister Maggie Barry has informed Okuru Enterprises, the company developing the scheme for over 20 years, that their Deed of Easement to build the pipeline would not automatically roll over in May 2019.
If built, the pipeline would run through the Haast Kiwi Sanctuary, home to the rare Haast tokoeka kiwi. There are about 400 of the nationally critical status birds left.
Okuru Enterprises plan to pipe water from Tuning Forks creek, which originates in Mt Aspiring National Park, to a 14-hectare bulk water storage facility at Neils Beach. The water will be piped directly into tanker ships anchored off Jackson Bay for export overseas.
The original easement was granted by the Department of Conservation in 1994, six years before the sanctuary was established.
Barry said she would expect any fresh application to be treated in the same way as the original – open to public submission and scrutiny.
The circumstances had changed in the 23 years since the original easement was granted, Barry said.
‘‘As Minister of Conservation the protection of our threatened and vulnerable species is one of my main priorities. Accordingly, nationally significant decisions about protected kiwi habitat must be considered at the highest level.’’
Okuru Enterprises director Helen Rasmussen said she assumed the issue was a matter of procedure.
Rasmussen refused to comment on if the pipeline was likely to be built by May 2019.
The Deed of Easement is one of four consents the development would need to get off the ground.
Last week they were granted resource consent by the Westland District Council to build the pipeline and storage facility.
That consent states Okuru Enterprises must develop a kiwi management plan, with the objective of ‘‘avoiding adverse effects from construction and ongoing activities within conservation land on Haast tokoeka [kiwi] living within a 100ha radius of the proposed pipeline route’’.
Forest and Bird chief executive Kevin Hague said the decision to grant the consent was ‘‘beyond comprehension’’.
‘‘The proposal is to take our water, ship it off shore for marginal benefit to the local community but with a potentially catastrophic cost to a species that’s already at critical risk of extinction.’’
The company has also been granted a water take consent by the West Coast Regional Council, allowing a monthly take of 800 million litres.
An application to renew a coastal permit for a 5km pipeline extending into Jacksons Bay is the final consent required.