Date: 14 April, 2011

Sweetwater Station Water Consents Granted

Several million cubic metres of Far North ground and surface water can be taken for irrigation annually in one of the biggest resource consent allocations of its kind since the 1980s, independent commissioners have ruled.

A three-member Northland Regional Council Hearings Committee has delivered a decision granting Landcorp Farming Limited and Te Runanga o Te Rawara resource consents to take the water at the 2200 hectare-plus Sweetwater Station, west of Kaitaia.

As granted, the 20-year consent will ultimately allow the applicants to take just over 1.5 million cubic metres of surface water from the Awanui River annually. Just over 2.3 million cubic metres of groundwater can also eventually be taken annually, although both the volume and 10-year length of this consent are half that sought by the applicants.

The water from both sources will be used for “pastoral irrigation purposes” over roughly one-third of the station, with the groundwater to come from a minimum of six - and maximum of 14 - production bores.

The three-member committee – chaired by Auckland planner Alan Watson – heard the application over several days in Kaitaia in late February, including one day on the Mahimaru Marae.

The application was lodged in November 2009 and publicly notified last year, attracting 50 submissions by a mid-June 2010 closing date; 48 opposed, one in support and one neutral. A further four late submissions, all opposed, were also subsequently accepted.

Broadly speaking, submitters’ concerns covered the volume of the proposed groundwater take (as requested it equated to just over a third of the available groundwater resource in the area), as well as potential ecological effects, salt water intrusion and water quality. Submissions also covered cultural, health and economic matters, land slumpage/subsidence and concerns over consultation and the adequacy of assessment and monitoring.

But in the their decision (which in total runs to more than 60 pages), the commissioners repeatedly stressed the precautionary approach they had adopted and noted that while the consents had been granted, the groundwater consent was for half the amount requested, as was the 10-year term it would run for.

“This recognises the level of information available, the concerns of submitters and the need to ensure sustainable management of the water resource.”

The commissioners also said measures included as part of the application and a raft of conditions they had imposed would ensure any adverse effects “are avoided, remedied or suitably mitigated”.

“This decision promotes the sustainable management of a high quality natural resource by taking a precautionary, measured, approach to the amount of water allocated.”

The proposal was also consistent with the relevant objectives and policies of both the Regional Policy Statement and the Regional Water and Soil Plan for Northland.

Meanwhile, as one of the conditions, the applicants must also set up and pay for an ‘Aupouri Water User Liaison Group’ to discuss and review the results of monitoring that will be undertaken as part of the consents.

Group members must include representatives of Aupouri groundwater users, local marae and tangata whenua, Department of Conservation and the Far North District and Northland Regional Councils.

The decision of the commissioners – Mr Watson, former Northland Regional Councillor Mark Farnsworth and Canterbury-based groundwater expert Hugh Thorpe – can now be appealed to the Environment Court for 15 working days.

ENDS

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