Taupo residents demand power station shutdown

Taupo residents whose homes are sinking want the Wairakei power station 10km north of their town to be shut down and all Contact Energy's Wairakei resource consents revoked.

The residents told a hearing in Taupo that the power station should be allowed to continue operating only once the effects of geothermal extraction at Wairakei had been fully investigated, remedied or offset.

The Invergarry Rd 24 Group, represented by resident Rhonda Wells, was making submissions at the hearing of Contact Energy's resource consent application before three commissioners.

Contact is applying to take more geothermal water and steam from the Wairakei field.

At present it takes 190,000 tonnes a day, which it wants to increase to 250,000 tonnes by 2015 for the Wairakei power station.

It also plans to more for the Poihipi power station.

The residents live in 24 houses in Invergarry Rd in Taupo that have been identified as being at risk of uneven ground slumping.

Taupo District Council has blamed geothermal extraction for the subsidence, but Contact Energy says there are several other possible causes, including underground sawdust pits from a sawmill that operated there until the 1960s.

It says the sawdust deposits have caused serious foundation problems for houses in the past. But Mrs Wells said residents did not accept that explanation.

They believed that if the damage was a result of unstable foundations it would have appeared much earlier.

Although subsidence damage was predicted to be minor, all homes were showing problems and new cracks and gaps were seen daily, she said.

The damage to people's homes and loss in value were stressful for residents and in some cases were affecting their health. This was particularly hard on retired people, who had invested their life savings in their homes, she said.

Residents had also spent time and money on research and making submissions.

Contact representatives and residents have had several meetings but Mrs Wells complained residents had been treated badly.

Environment Waikato also came in for criticism, with Mrs Wells saying it had provided little information and had to be pressed to take notice of the problem.

The chairman of the commissioners' panel, Simon Berry, told Mrs Wells he accepted her account of the damage that was occurring.

Commissioners needed to consider a process for remedying any damage if it was found to have been caused by Contact's activities. He said it was outside the commissioners' powers to shut down the Wairakei station and revoke its consents.

After the residents' submission, the commissioners visited several homes in Invergarry Rd to inspect the damage.

Contact has said it will remedy any private property affected if it is proved, contrary to its own advice, that its operations are causing the subsidence.

- NZPA