NRC accused of allowing an ongoing consent breach

The Awanui River was flowing well below the minimum permitted by the Northland Regional Council's consent for the FNDC to take water for Kaitaia this time last year, and is now in a similar state once again. Photo / file

Kaitaia man Des Mahoney has accused the Northland Regional Council of permitting the Far North District Council to breach the terms of its consent to take water from the Awanui River on an ongoing basis.

"This the second year in a row that this has happened, there have been other occasions in the last seven years," he said.

According to the NRC website, the river was flowing at 360 litres per second at the school cut (just upstream from the Church Rd bridge, and downstream from where the district council takes water to supply Kaitaia) on February 3. It had been flowing at less than the consented minimum of 460 litres per second since January 28.

"This is clearly a breach of the Far North District Council's resource consent, and it is very apparent that the Northland Regional Council is allowing such ongoing breach," he said.

Mahoney also quoted FNDC in-house counsel George Swanepoel as saying, in the Kaitaia District Court on January 20, that the Kauri dam, which the council has for years said cannot be used because of an algal bloom, that the dam was "extremely helpful" because "although it's got algal bloom and we can't take water, it does give us the ability to actually take water below the normal consent levels that have been granted out of the Awanui River... If we didn't have that dam, the resource consent could not be granted to us, so having the dam there at the moment is (an) extremely vital part of the Kaitaia water infrastructure."

He asked NRC chief executive Malcolm Nicolson if that was correct.

He also wanted to know why the district council was not taking water from the Te Rarawa bore, as it did during the last drought, which taxpayers and ratepayers had paid $1 million for, and accused the NRC of giving the FNDC a "hospital pass" that it would not offer to a farmer who continued taking water, who would have been issued with an abatement notice or would be facing court proceedings.

"There seems to be a double standard," he said.

Mahoney was also highly critical of the district council, which he said was able to buy land at Waipapa, and was now "rushing" to build a regional sports complex that was going to cost ratepayers millions dollars, but could not deliver water to Kaitaia and Kaikohe.

"This must highlight gross incompetence regarding the decision-making by the elected members of the Far North District Council in the delivery of the nice-to-have and failing to deliver the must-haves, water, sewerage and roading," he said.

Both councils were invited to respond but have not done so. Editor.