The Awa Protection Society are thrilled at the generous response our efforts have received from the Taranaki community. At present, we have raised $7,000 towards the $30,000 we need to defend our victory over Remediation NZ in Environment Court.
In May 2021, our coalition won a major victory when a Taranaki Region Council (TRC) hearing commission declined to renew Remediation NZ's consents to operate their "composting" facility.
Uruti families are dealing with a company with decades of breaches of consent conditions including prosecutions at this site and another in Waikato. Long standing and ongoing issues at Uruti include 20,000 tonnes of stockpiled drilling wastes from oil and gas wells as well as odour effects, soil and groundwater contamination.
Despite the Covid Lockdown, we have been as busy as ever (in our personal bubbles, of course), preparing for the first step of our Environment Court Appeal, which is mediation. The success of our appeal is mainly based on volunteer power. Ngāti Mutunga, community groups and volunteers are spending many hours a week formatting and distributing our newsletter; monitoring the Mimitangiatua and catchment for pollution; keeping odour and health diaries; researching and collating years of consent breaches; organising surface and groundwater testing for toxic chemicals; and liaising with TRC about ongoing activities at the site.
Unfortunately, owing to lockdown, our all-important site visit to Remediation NZ has been delayed. This will be essential to obtain first hand evidence whether the company has been adhering to their consent conditions, both in terms of the waste materials they are accepting and the procedures they have implemented to ensure there is no ongoing contamination of either the Mimitangiatua, neighbouring groundwater or the air Uruti families have to breathe.
One question we are still struggling to answer is how an operation with TRC resource consents to operate an organic composting facility could also serve as a disposal facility for the oil and gas companies contaminated drilling wastes including muds and produced water.
Ngāti Mutunga has already declared a rāhui on the Mimitangiatua River because the quality of the way and Awa are compromised, and the awa was downgraded. Whanau/iwi have decided that the rāhui needs to remain in place until the awa is proven to be healthy again.
After two decades of struggling with this social and environmental injustice, it will be a big relief to finally get our day in court. One positive outcome of the Environmental Court case is we can finally get the awa, groundwater, and air tested to pinpoint the cause of people's health problems.
While the lay evidence Uruti families are collecting will be important in challenging Remediation NZ's appeal, we will also have to hire air, water and health experts to counter the evidence brought by Remediation NZ experts. To keep legal costs down, we ourselves are performing as much of the legal research and document preparation as we can.
To cover the cost of experts, we still need another $23,000 to meet our $30,000 goal. Please give as generously as you can.
https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/north-taranaki-awa-protection-society
