Green Bill to prevent exceptional pollution

Green MP Catherine Delahunty has drafted a Member’s Bill that would prevent polluters from being granted consent to indefinitely pollute waterways under an “exceptional circumstances” clause.

The Tasman Pulp and Paper Mill, which has been discharging waste into the Tarawera River for the last 64 years, was yesterday granted consent to continue its discharge for another 25 years under a section of the Resource Management Act which provides for discharges into water under “exceptional circumstances.”

“The continued pollution of the Tarawera River under this clause is a disgrace,” Ms Delahunty said.

“ ‘Exceptional circumstances’ clearly connotes something out of the ordinary, but polluting the Tarawera River is business as usual for the Tasman Pulp and Paper Mill.

“I have drafted a Member’s Bill that would limit the length of consents granted under ‘exceptional circumstances’ to five years. This would preserve the ability for consent to be granted under genuinely unusual conditions, but stop companies from getting perpetual rights to pollute.

“This latest consent for polluting the Tarawera River is a massive backwards step, since the last consent granted was for less than ten years. Who knows what will happen in the next 25 years? The mill may even close without ever having to clean up its act.

“This decision ignores the many submissions of those who oppose the mill’s discharges on ecological grounds. It also ignores Te Tiriti rights and environmental concerns of tangata whenua and dismisses their issues as largely symbolic.

“There is a condition that there will be regular reviews to ‘aim to reduce’ the discolouring of the water but we have heard all this before to very little effect,” Ms Delahunty said.

Ms Delahunty’s Member’s Bill would amend section 107 2(a) of the Resource Management Act to limit “exceptional circumstances” to five years. It will be entered into the members’ ballot as soon as possible.