25.10.19

The discharge of water from the SkyCity convention centre fire into the Waitemata Harbour is the most amazing double standard the country has seen in a long time.

For authorities to say that the water might have been too toxic to put into Auckland's wastewater system, ‘so we're just going to pump it into the harbour instead’ is simply not good enough.

If the water had turned out to be that toxic, its effect on the harbour’s ecosystem would have been devastating

The hurry to pump out the SkyCity basement has been driven by the urgency to get the casino up and running again.

That is putting the profits of the casino and its shareholders ahead of the health of Auckland Harbour, the fish stocks and the people who use the harbour and its beaches.

If the Casino needed to stay closed for one day, 2 days, or more until the toxicity of the water was determined and an appropriate treatment plan put in place then that's what should have happened.

The government and its green allies should have stepped in at a very early stage end told authorities that discharge of the water into the harbour was not acceptable and should not proceed.

They appear more than happy to beat up on the country's farmers and demand urgent higher quality discharge standards from them, yet allow more than 8 million litres of possibly highly toxic water from the fire to go straight into the harbour.

That's another example of an amazing double standard and shows both Labour and the Greens are more interested in preserving big corporate profits than protecting the environment.

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