Oceania Dairy, which is owned by the Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co Ltd, wants to build a 7.5 kilometre pipeline from its factory at Glenavy, about 58km south of Timaru. It has asked for a 35-year consent for the discharge.
Submissions closed earlier this month, with Environment Canterbury receiving 125 submissions, with 17 of submitters expressing a desire to appear at next year’s consent hearings.
Forest and Bird, one of the groups which wishes to appear at next year’s hearings, is strongly against the proposal’s lack of information.
In particular, it expresses concern about “the level of uncertainty that arises from the effects of the proposal on a dynamic ocean environment, the lack of alternatives considered, and the proposed thirty five year time frame for the discharge consent”.
“In fact the mitigation considered in the proposal appears scattered throughout the Assessments of Effects (AEE) which makes it difficult to determine whether the measures are adequate or robust for conditions to support a grant of consent,” the submission says.
“The applicant in its AEE compares their proposed discharge to the consented, but as yet unbuilt, Fonterra Studholme outfall discharge.
“In our view considering the mounting pressures on the marine environment … using the granted permission of one outfall to justify the permitting of another does not allow for considering the cumulative effect and is therefore not appropriate.
The organisation is also worried about the fact there was not more investigation and explanation of possible alternatives to an ocean outfall.
“It is unclear to what extent the applicant has investigated options to acquire additional land to discharge the wastewater or to utilise available technology to clean the wastewater to a standard suitable for irrigation of crops or pasture or to a standard for stock or drinking water,” it says.
Accordingly, Forest and Bird is asking for “monitoring that covers the whole range of possible contaminants”, “mitigation measures that include an applicant contribution to a local conservation or habitat restoration project” and “a shorter time of ten years with an opportunity to review and renew the activity and the conditions”.
The organisation also called for an actual assessment of the marine life in the surrounding area of the discharge.
Greenpeace also joined in the chorus of opposition, with its short submission saying the “Pacific Ocean is not a dumping ground”.
“Furthermore, dairying is NZ’s single largest climate emitter and water polluter. In the midst of a national freshwater crisis and a global climate emergency, dairy expansion is the exact opposite of what must be done. We must reduce cow numbers and milk volume.
“Allowing a dairy processing factory to expand its processing volume and treat the Pacific Ocean like its own personal dump is unacceptable in 2019.”
Waimate District Councillor Tom O’Connor said he did not submit on the proposal.
However, he told Stuff he had some “serious concerns” about it, most notably the contingency measures should something go wrong, and the proposed length of time of the consent.
“While there are a whole lot of elements that will have a ‘less than minor’ effect on the environment by themselves, when they’re put together, they could have major effects on the environment.”