Posted on December 21, 2017
By Chris Hutching, stuff
Lyttelton Port Company’s harbour dredging is a step closer after the Surfbreak Protection Society withdrew its appeal to recently granted consents.
If another appeal by Ng?i Tahu can be settled soon it will allow the port company to go ahead with the dredging and the construction of a $56 million cruise ship berth.
When the appeals were lodged in August, port chief executive Peter Davie said court action would delay construction of the cruise ship berth beyond 2019, and visits by bigger ships.
Ng?i Tahu has just completed two mediation sessions with the port company and the outlook was positive, according to environmental lawyer Mark Christensen, who represents tribal interests.
“We’re making progress and I’d hope to be able to reveal more within the month. I’m feeling positive about it,” he said
Ng?i Tahu was concerned about the effects of dredging tonnes of sediment annually, while the Surfbreak group was concerned about the effects on Taylors Mistake and Sumner surf breaks.
Surfbreak representative Michael Gunson said the port company would set up a dedicated web-based camera system to continuously monitor the character of the Taylors Mistake surf break, and there would be five-yearly reviews of the effects.
The agreed monitoring was based on a system implemented by Port of Otago at a famous break at Whareakeake, and highlighted by Surfbreak during the Lyttelton resource consent hearing.
Gunson said the monitoring allowed Port Otago to modify its dumping to different areas to reduce mounding of sediment on the seabed, giving a noticeably improved surfbreak.
The agreed adaptive management program at Otago included extra trigger points and more diffuse spreading of sediment at Aramoana.
“Napier and Gisborne ports are about to go through the same resource applications so I hope we don’t have to go through the same thing with them. We don’t like dredging but we don’t like having to take the legal road either,” Gunson said.
Davie said the agreement would enable Lyttelton Port to provide for the future freight demands of the growing Canterbury economy and protect the valuable recreation resource.
He said he was focused on working with Te R?nanga o Ng?i Tahu, Te Hap? o Ng?ti Wheke (Rapaki), Te R?nanga o Koukour?rata and Ng?i Tahu Fisheries to resolve the issues raised in their appeal.
If the impasse with Ng?i Tahu is resolved, Lyttelton Port will dredge 167,000 tonnes a year and remove 18 million cubic metres of sediment in two dredging campaigns each of about nine months duration.
The dredge will use a long pipe with a suction head into a hopper and will dump the material offshore past Godley Head. Some of the finer sediment will be lost overboard during the dredging.
The port company will also carry out annual maintenance dredging of about 900,000 cubic metres a year.
The Ng?i Tahu objection included concerns about the effect on fishing grounds, mussel farms and Hector’s dolphins.
Source: stuff
