The Environmental Protection Authority is being accused of "breathtaking incompetence" for glitches and non-publication of some 18 documents relied on by the public in making submissions on the first application ever received for a seabed ironsands mining permit.
The EPA this morning extended the deadline for submissions on the application by Wellington-based Trans-Tasman Resources, which is seeking permission to mine a 66 square kilometre area in the Exclusive Economic Zone, some 22 kilometres off the south Taranaki coast.
Submissions were to have closed yesterday and had been the subject of a drive by a group opposing the development, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, which says it had received notice of more than 4,000 submissions being made against the project.
"That the EPA failed to publicly post Trans-Tasman Resources' seabed mining application form until the day after the public response period closed is breathtaking in its incompetence," said KASM spokesman Phil McCabe.
BusinessDesk understands Environment Minister Amy Adams has given the EPA a rocket on the mistakes, which appear to have been caused by a single EPA staffer who made errors in uploading the extensive TTR materials to the authority's website.