Sand mining opponents lose dredging appeal

Sand mining opponents lose dredging appealBY WAYNE THOMPSONSand mining opponents have lost their appeal to the High Court against dredging near shore areas of the Mangawhai-Pakiri embayment in the northern Hauraki Gulf.

Last month, Friends of Pakiri Beach and the Auckland Regional Council jointly argued there were flaws in a 2006 Environment Court decision which extended coastal permits for taking 76,000cu m of sand a year in water 5m to 10m deep off Pakiri for 14 years.

Dredging takes place from two strips of sea bottom, each about 5km long, starting at about 200m to 300m offshore.

The appellants said evidence accepted by the Environment Court on the sustainability of mining had such significant factual errors that they amounted to errors of law.

Scientific experts differed on whether the breakdown of shells in the embayment contributed 90,000cu m of sediment a year to the quantity of sand to offset the effects of mining. Friends of Pakiri said evidence showed the inflow of sand was only 12,000cu m.

Justice Raynor Asher dismissed the appeal against McCallum Bros' continuing to dredge off the white sand beach to supply half of Auckland's needs for ready-mixed concrete.

He said the conclusions of the Environment Court showed by a considerable margin that natural sand replenishment would compensate for sand taken.

It was not shown past dredging had caused erosion and changes to the beach and landforms.

It was not demonstrated that the court made a decision not based on evidence, or that the decision contained any clear factual errors.

Friends of Pakiri Beach chairman Nick Williams said the decision left the public reliant on woefully inadequate monitoring of the mining consent conditions by the ARC.

The Friends of Pakiri Beach and the Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society complain monitoring has not picked up erosion, which can be seen along the coast and affects the habitat of threatened birds the fairy tern and the New Zealand dotterel.