South Taranaki District Council has made a neutral submission on proposed seabed mining off the coast of Patea - but Patea Ward councillor Robert Northcott did not sign it.
Hawera Ward councillor Kirsty Bourke didn't sign either. Both are against the mining.
Mr Northcott said he had tried to look at both sides of the proposal, but concluded sucking up iron sand and then returning 90 per cent of the material to the seabed was too risky and experimental.
He knows the applicant, Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR), has done modelling about the effect of any sediment plume created when sand is returned to the seabed. But he's not convinced the modelling is right.
Mr Northcott gets out in a boat in the South Taranaki Bight to fish. He's also dived some of its inshore reefs. He knows they are not in the area to be mined, but doesn't want to put them at risk from any flow-on effects.