Hearing reconvened for Napier's new wharf

Napier City Councillor Larry Dallimore says he is not against port expansion, but wants to see waste material from dredging put to good use. Photo / File

Napier Port is gunning for a new wharf, which would allow ships up to 360m into Napier.

To build this new wharf the port needs consent to undertake capital and maintenance dredging, a process where the sea floor is dug out to deepen a channel.

The port, represented by Paul Majurey , made its closing legal statement to the hearing commissioners yesterday. He said, during the statement, that it was useful to remember the fundamental principals of the Resource Management Act when considering whether to grant consent or not.

"The RMA does not mandate a 'no risks' approach to the sustainable management of natural and physical resources," Majurey said.

He said perceptions or fears are not evidence of an effect and cannot be given weight.

"Any party asserting an effect needs to provide supporting probative evidence."

He disputed claims that dredging would have a major adverse effect on erosion at Westshore, one of the main concerns of those how oppose the new wharf, saying the Coastal Experts joint witness statement were in agreement on this.

"The JWS clearly confirms the experts' agreement that expansion of the channel will, at most, cause a small loss of fine sands from the Westshore beach near shore system."

He said the JWS had given evidence showing the dredge dump site would be highly unlikely to effect the culturally significant Pania Reef, another issue which had been raised during previous hearing meetings.

At a previous meeting, held on August 22, Napier City Councillor Larry Dallimore submitted, saying he was not against the project but believe the dredged seabed could be dumped somewhere beneficial to Napier.

"I feel the Port of Napier needs to give more consideration to dumping dredged sand where it can actually benefit Napier's northern coastline," he said in his submission.

"The south end of Westshore Beach needs regular supplies of sand to counter zero near shore replenishment therefore, relying on the port dredging programme every four or five or six years could create a problem."

"Experts agree on the northerly sediment drift and generally agree 'Fix Westshore and
you also fix Bayview, Whirinaki and Tangoio'."

A joint statement of planners relating to proposed condition of consent was also presented at the meeting by Reece O'Leary, Principal Consents Planner at Hawke's Bay Regional Council, and Sylvia Allen from Allen Planning Ltd.

This included provisions for Marine Wildlife Management, Cultural Monitoring and information sharing and noise management.

While Hawke's Bay Regional Council is the party that usually grants resource consent, as it owns the port, the hearing commissioners were independent of the council.

The commissioners are Chairman Bill Wasley , a resource management planning consultant from Tauranga, Malcolm Green, a coastal scientist from Hamilton and Rauru Kirikiri, cultural values representative from Wellington.