Pipiwai residents hope next week's test results might force regional, district or central governments to start treating it as a health issue, not just a nuisance. Puti Tipene and Jack Luisi said residents had been "getting fobbed off" until now.
"We're asking the authorities to see this as affecting our quality of life. We've been living here for years. The only change is the amount of heavy traffic coming through," Mr Luisi said. "If we're told we're at the bottom of a queue (for road sealing), we'll block the road."
Far North Mayor Wayne Brown has told them "sealing is not going to happen in this economic climate". He advised them to take the matter up with their MP. But Northland MP Mike Sabin told them the Government was not responsible for local roading issues: "We are doing what we can but have limited influence over council decision-making processes."
Whangarei roading manager Jeff Devine said that as the Government had withdrawn subsidies the council could not seal roads at a cost of $300,000 to $400,000 per kilometre. Mr Devine said the WDC wanted logging trucks to use the Wright Rd route to keep them off the sealed but weaker Kokopu Rd.
Last week, the NRC granted resource consent for the district councils to spray a decontaminated waste-oil coating on worst-affected sites. Hancock Forest Management - responsible for the increase in logging traffic - is paying for the application at six sites. The company has also imposed speed restrictions below 50km/h on trucks travelling past houses, and had water trucks on roads.
The coating was applied outside Alex and Graham Wright's dairy farm entrance on Wright Rd last week. The product has previously been trialled only on roads carrying 10 logging trucks a day, not the 40 that use Wright Rd.
"This is a very short-term measure. The solution lies with sealing the roads, especially where there is a great increase in logging traffic," Mrs Wright said. With Fonterra able to refuse to collect milk contaminated by any source "we're fighting for our quality of life but our business, too", she said.
Mrs Wright and Ms Tipene said they hoped a public meeting to which the local authorities had been invited might lead to solutions or an action plan. The meeting is on Thursday, March 21, 10am, at Kaikou Marae, Pipiwai (Lovett Rd).