Winery loses sewage clash

By ANNE GIBSON

The owners of an award-winning Waiheke Island vineyard have lost the first round of a legal dispute with the operators of a neighbouring sewage operation.

Kim and Jeanette Goldwater, of the Goldwater Estate, took Hugh and Sandra Richards to the Environment Court in late July.

The Richards run Waiheke Septic Tank Cleaning Services, and lease land at 188 Wilma Rd above Okahuiti Estuary near Ostend in the central part of the island.

The Goldwaters complained of odours and illegal overland flows of contaminated water from the sewage farm, and sought an enforcement order prohibiting it operating on the land.

But in a written decision, presiding Environment Court Judge Laurie Newhook and commissioners have refused the application, saying the Richards had given undertakings to the Goldwaters about their operations and matters could be more fully dealt with at the next court hearing.

The septic business has been operating on the land since 1967. It removes solids from tanks, trucks the waste to the land and ploughs it into the soil.

The Auckland Regional Council has granted the Richards' application to renew its discharge permit, but the Goldwaters and Melling Holdings are appealing against that.

A date for the appeal hearing is to be set on Monday.

In the meantime, the Goldwaters took the Richards to court to stop them operating.

"Witnesses called on behalf of the Goldwaters gave evidence of strong and objectionable odours being experienced by vineyard workers next door," the decision said.

Vineyard manager Ken Christie, a relative of the Goldwaters, gave evidence that his complaints to the Auckland regional and city councils were not acted on.

The Environment Court decision criticised the councils.

"We found the lack of responsiveness to complaints on the part of both councils to be unacceptable and unfortunate," it said.

The court found clear evidence of offensive odours coming from the site for up to a day after some loads were tipped there.

But it noted the Richards had given assurances about their operation.

These included an offer to stop disposing of grease trap waste and composting toilet waste on the site.

And the Richards undertook not to use nearby land if the Goldwaters told them vineyard workers were in an area or near a boundary.

"It is clear to us that there have been unpleasant incidents," the decision said. "Unfortunately we heard no evidence sufficient to establish for us on an objective basis the true extent of offensiveness of the smells. That, coupled with the undertakings by the Richards, have persuaded the majority of us to exercise our discretion on this occasion not to issue an enforcement order."

Lawyer Sarah Ongley, who appeared with Richard Brabant for the Richards, said after the case that the Richards had made concessions before and after the case went to court.

Christie said after the case that the land for the sewage business abutted the estuary, a sensitive marine area, which was being endangered by the operation. Goldwater Estate bought the land beside the septic tank business in 1996.

Christie said the Goldwaters had been told no renewal of the resource consent for the existing business would be sought when it expired in 1997, Christie said.

But the land owners had leased to the Richards, who had sought a renewal.