Applicants Earth Tech Engineering Pty Limited and the Kaipara District Council applied to the Northland Regional Council last year for more than a dozen water, land use, coastal and discharge permits needed for what is known as the ‘Mangawhai EcoCare Project’.
The District Council also sought a ‘notice of requirement’ enabling it to legally designate part of the land commonly known as ‘Mangawhai Park’ on the corner of Thelma Rd and Molesworth Dr for a ‘waste water treatment plant’.
A two-member Northland Regional Council Hearings Committee, chaired by Cr Lorraine Hill, heard the application at Mangawhai last month and delivered its decision yesterday (Thursday 22 March).
The proposal is designed to serve a large proportion of the Mangawhai community, which currently relies on septic tanks and small communal systems for wastewater treatment, many of which are adversely affecting the local and adjoining coastal environment.
The proposed EcoCare Project comprises 21km of sewer, 18km of property drains, 15 pumping stations, six kilometres of rising mains and a new wastewater treatment plant occupying almost 5000 square metres of Mangawhai Park. It is designed to deal with a normally resident Mangawhai population of 3000 and a peak of 8200 people.
The proposal also incorporates a new 110,000 cubic metre treated effluent storage dam and a new irrigation system to apply treated effluent to pasture on a dairy farm the Council has bought adjacent to Brown Rd in the Hakaru River catchment.
One of the key concerns raised by many submitters on the proposal was the potential for discharges of wastewater runoff to contaminate the adjoining Hakaru River. The Committee refused an application to discharge wastewater directly to the river because its members were not satisfied such an activity - with the potential adverse downstream effects - was sustainable.
In granting the designation application, construction resource consents for five years, and operational consents (granted for the legal maximum period of 35 years), the Hearings Committee noted that the proposed Mangawhai site “is considered to be the best practicable option”.
Actual and potential effects of the plant were all assessed during the Committee’s deliberations, including the construction process and ongoing potential odour, noise, visual and traffic movement effects once the plant was operating.
“All of these effects are considered to be either of a temporary nature, limited in area and mitigated through adoption of best practise techniques during construction” or would be sustainably managed through appropriate consent conditions once the plant was operating, the Committee says.
“It is therefore considered that the effects of the proposed designation on the environment and people’s health, safety and wellbeing will be no more than minor.”
Any party not satisfied with the decision now has 15 working days within which to file any appeals with the Environment Court.