Questions raised on dam consent

Silt flowing from Waihi Dam mixed with the Waiau River and nearby tributaries for months before the damaged sluice gate was repaired. Photo / Peter Scott

It was revealed yesterday the Hawke's Bay Regional Council have known since 2013 that Waihi Dam was in breach of its resource consent.

The dam, owned by Eastland Group, began discharging silt into Wairoa waterways in December after a sluice gate was damaged in a storm, and was only repaired in March.

Under the terms of the company's "water right", which it has held since 1979, the group need to employ an ecologist once a year to carry out one-day field investigations. Water rights precede what is now known as a resource consent.

When asked in February, the council's resource use manager Wayne Wright said he was not prepared to comment on whether such work had been carried out by the company, or if there was a record of these field investigations, due to the ongoing inquiries into the situation.

However, yesterday Radio New Zealand claimed the council had requested copies of the yearly ecological survey, and a sediment survey Eastland were required to carry out every two years, in 2013. They received one sediment survey in 2014 and no ecological survey because Eastland had not carried any out.

It reported the council said the company had breached its consent in respect of the surveys, but no penalties were incurred.

Of the claims the dam breached the consent, Eastland Group chief executive Matt Todd said "if you pull something out that is close to 30-years-old", it had no recognition of "agreements reached in the interim".

He said "suggesting we haven't complied with something incredibly old is not the right pathway of investigation."

HBRC and Eastland Group had been in discussion around the 1979 "consent" for a number of years, he said.

With Eastland owning the dam, and the council being the regulator, Mr Todd said they had discussed how to work together "to ensure this asset meets the current requirements", and that these conversations predated the events of last year.

He said neither Eastland nor HBRC had thought the consent was meeting current requirements.

"The consent hasn't officially been changed, but we recognised the consent needed to be changed," he said. "I don't think they provide either party with value."

HBRC interim chief executive Liz Lambert was not aware of the surveys.

HBRC chairman Fenton Wilson said they were in the middle of a "full blown investigation into the pollution issue" which included investigating all the factors around it, and leading up to it.

The information revealed yesterday only added "to the total picture and will form a critical and integral part of the investigation", which was being undertaken by staff from HBRC and a number of experts.

Green Party MP and water spokesperson Catherine Delahunty said she was still shocked it was May, and the investigation was still continuing.

"When the river is damaged, the people are damaged."

Ikaroa Rawhiti MP Meka Whaitiri said to discover HBRC had known about resource consent breaches since 2013 was not only embarrassing, but raised serious questions about their attention to detail as a regulator of our waterways.

"HBRC are conducting an investigation and have obligations under the Resource Management Act to hold Eastland Group accountable for the silt issue," she said.