Posted: 14 August 2007
Consent granted for boat cleaning facility
The Northland Regional Council has granted resource consents for a proposed Totara North facility that will clean down boats before anti-fouling.
Far North Holdings Ltd (FNHL) applied to the Regional Council last year for the consents needed for the Okura Bay facility and a two-member Council Hearings Committee heard the application in Kerikeri last month.
The Committee, chaired by Regional Councillor Lorraine Hill, delivered its decision recently, granting 35-year consents to discharge contaminants to air and treated stormwater to the Coastal Marine Area.
Far North Holdings intends to construct the facility - alongside a bulk store building occupied by a fisheries company - but lease it to another party to operate. It will be used for cleaning down boats in preparation for applying anti-foulants. All wash water will be retained, settled and recirculated.
Twenty-four submissions were received on the proposal; 14 in support, two in partial support and eight opposed. Opponents’ concerns had included the risk of pollution and noise and other nuisance to local residents.
Regional Council staff had recommended the consents be granted, suggesting the potential and actual adverse effects from the proposed facility would be ‘no more than minor’ and would be adequately controlled and mitigated by proposed detailed consent conditions.
The Committee considered that the proposed facility would “allow the community and other users to carry out maintenance to their vessels at an authorised facility with appropriate provisions for stormwater discharge and discharge to air”.