Springs report delay surprises
It could be early next year before a long-awaited recommendation report is completed on a Water Conservation Order application for Te Waikoropupu¯ Springs in Golden Bay.
In June 2017, the then environment minister, Nick Smith, accepted the conservation order application from Nga¯ ti Tama Ki Te Waipounamu Trust and
Golden Bay resident Andrew Yuill to protect the springs, the Arthur Marble Aquifer and associated water bodies. The subsequent hearing before a Special Tribunal closed in August 2018.
Since then, the tribunal members have been drafting their recommendation report for current Environment Minister David Parker.
Frustrated by the length of time the report is taking, the Save Our Springs group last week fired off an open letter to Parker and Conservation Minister Eugenie
Sage, asking them to use their influence to expedite the process. Parker last Friday asked his officials to explain the reasons for the ‘‘long delay’’.
A spokesman for Parker said the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) had told the minister that the process was taking longer than expected because the tribunal was ‘‘weighing a considerable amount of evidence and complex issues’’.
The EPA had engaged additional administrative support to help with the writing of the report. It understood that a recommendation was likely to be made later this year or early next year, and reminded the minister how important it was to respect the independence of the tribunal.
‘‘This does not prevent me from expressing my surprise that the process has taken 15 months so far, since the formal completion of hearings, with no recommendation report yet provided,’’ Parker said.
Save Our Springs campaign co-ordinator Kevin Moran said rising nitrate levels in the springs, along with the discovery of algae in recent weeks, made it difficult to be patient.
‘‘I’m frustrated and disappointed by [Parker’s] response. He should do more. If that [algae] wasn’t there . . . I’d be patient, but I think we’re potentially on the edge of a disaster.’’
The average reading of nitratenitrogen in the springs for September was 0.52mg per litre, ‘‘a 30 per cent increase on 2016’’, Moran said.
‘‘That nitrate level keeps going up. That’s not being addressed.’’