Allowing a company to apply for fast-tracked consent to mine sand off the Northland coast has galvanised opposition and brought previously disparate groups together, the plan’s critics say.
A proposal by McCallum Brothers to dredge forsand off Bream Bay, south of Whangārei, is one of 149 projects nationwide – and 11 in Northland – able to apply for resource consent through new fast-track legislation, instead of having to go through the often-laborious Resource Management Act process.
Bream Bay residents prepare for this weekend's protest rally at Ruakākā Beach.
The fast-track process does not allow for community consultation, but instead of discouraging opponents, Emma Hart said that had fired them up.
Hart, a spokeswoman for Stop Sandmining in Bream Bay, said the fast-track legislation had brought people together in record time.
“It’s a fast track, but we have responded equally as fast. There’s been such a wave of opposition, and everyone from Whangārei Heads to Langs Beach and beyond are appalled at what this has the potential to do to our most valuable asset, which is our coast, and is the reason we all live here,” she said.
The decision would be made by an expert panel without community consultation, but Hart hoped the strength of opposition would persuade the panellists to hold public hearings.
That would give opponents a chance to speak, or at least submit evidence, she said.
A sand-mining dredge in action off Pākiri Beach.
“This has actually galvanised us into immediate action because we have a small window in which to voice and show and gather evidence against this proposal. There’s nothing in this proposal for the good people of Bream Bay. There’s no money, there’s no jobs and we’ve got an Auckland company coming up with an Auckland vessel and taking away sand.”
Hart said opponents were planning a rally at Ruakākā Beach from 11.30am tomorrow.
She expected hundreds of people, from many different groups, to take part, as well as MPs and hapū.
More than 1000 people were signing a petition against the sand-mining proposal each week, she said.
However, McCallum Brothers managing director Callum McCallum urged people to wait until they had the full facts before forming an opinion.
The company had commissioned a raft of technical reports, from individual experts and reputable organisations such as Niwa, Cawthron Institute, MetService, and Tonkin and Taylor.
Once complete, those reports would be available in full on the McCallum Brothers website.
They would address cultural values, coastal processes, surf, seafloor ecology, marine mammals, birdlife, fisheries, acoustics, economics and more.
Sunrise over Taranga Island, in the Hen and Chicken Islands off Bream Bay.
McCallum confirmed the company intended to seek fast-track consent, and would lodge its application once the expert reports had been completed.
He acknowledged the rally planned at Ruakākā on Sunday, and said the company had been consulting with a number of groups in Northland since the plan’s inception.
The company had also been engaging with the two main hapū in the area, Patuharakeke and Te Parawhau, and some individuals who had made direct contact.
“We’ll be engaging with relevant local community groups once we’ve received our completed technical reports. We look forward to the opportunity to discuss our proposal with the local community, including how we can contribute and support the local community,” he said.
Hart said her concerns about sand mining included the effect on endangered species, such as sea turtles and the fairy tern or tara iti, New Zealand’s rarest shorebird.
Removing sand would also leave Bream Bay’s coastline – already “absolutely wrecked” during Cyclone Gabrielle – even more vulnerable to storm surges, rising sea levels, and coastal erosion, she said.
“If we say nothing we are allowing our most valuable assets to be taken away … We cannot allow the environment to be sold out to the highest bidder.”
Hart said the sand off Bream Bay was deposited thousands of years ago when the Waikato River flowed out on the east coast, so it would never be replenished.
Sand mining opponents spell out SOS during a protest at Mangawhai Beach in 2022. Photo / Save Our Sand Mangawhai Pakiri / Elevated Media
There were viable alternatives to dredging beach sand, some just kilometres from the Bream Bay proposal, Hart said.
They included plans by a Kaipara company to invest heavily in a plant producing high-grade land sand.
Technical reports had not identified any significant effects caused by the sand mining proposal, McCallum said.
“Where minor effects have been found, we’ve taken measures to reduce these further so our operation can be undertaken with as little effect as possible.”
He said Auckland had an acute shortage of locally sourced sand resulting in concrete plants running out of sand twice in 2024.
Sand for the Auckland CBD was currently being transported by road from as far away as the Waikato, creating congestion and large volumes of CO2, he said.
Meanwhile, local hapū Patuharakeke said it had been engaged by McCallum Brothers to produce a Cultural Impact Assessment (CIA) relating to the sand-mining proposal.
Dave Milner, of Patuharakeke Te Iwi Trust Board’s Te Pou Taiao unit, said the hapū opposed in principle any mining in its rohe moana (coastal area).
That message had been conveyed directly to McCallum Brothers, he said.
Milner said the fast-track process, unlike the RMA, did not allow Patuharakeke to have a voice at council-level consent hearings or take legal action through the Environment Court.
The sand-mining operation, if it goes ahead, will take place about 4km off Northland's Bream Bay. Photo / WikiCommons
That left the CIA as the hapū‘s only way to have a say.
“Therefore, our intention is to use our CIA process to provide a robust foundation to convey the hapū view on this application. This process will also involve kōrero with our neighbouring hapū and iwi.”
Milner said hapū representatives would take part in the Ruakākā Beach rally, and would hold a pōwhiri from 10am to welcome iwi from outside the area.
If the proposal goes ahead, 250,000 cubic metres of sand will be removed per year from an area of seabed about 4km offshore.
The sand would be collected by a suction dredge then shipped to ports in Northland, Auckland and the Bay of Plenty.
It differs from the company’s sand mining operation at Pākiri Beach, about 50km to the south, in that the dredging at Pākiri occurred close to shore.
Renewed consent for the Pākiri operation, which has also sparked strong opposition, was refused under the RMA process by independent commissioners for Auckland Council.
McCallum Brothers challenged the decision in the Environment Court but lost, and the company was ordered to pay a record $500,000 in costs to a community group and a Pākiri resident.
It is now appealing the Environment Court ruling.
The appeal is set down to start on November 10 in the High Court at Auckland.
- RNZ
Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
