LAWRENCE GULLERY
Maraekakaho people will fight a plan to dig a 6m deep 30ha quarry next to the Ngaruroro River only 1km from their rural township.
Higgins Aggregates had applied to the Hastings District Council for resource consent to extract gravel on farmland between Kereru Rd and the river over 25 years.
At the end of the project the quarry would be turned into a recreational lake.
A public meeting was held at the Maraekakaho Hall on Sunday at which about 20 people told two Hawke's Bay regional councillors and a Higgins representative that noise and dust pollution would spill over their rural town.
Higgins proposed to transport about 50,000cu m of gravel a day, six days a week, from the river to be processed at another site at Roy's Hill, 10km away.
People at Sunday's meeting said falling gravel from the trucks could pose problems for motorists, while those teaching at Maraekakaho School said they were worried noise from the trucks could disrupt pupils.
Higgins spokesman Alan Tuck, who spoke at the meeting, explained how a lake would be formed as the site was excavated over 25 years.
One of those at the meeting, Brian Fitzsimons, said people told Mr Tuck how they thought the lake would impact on their rural properties downriver, especially during a flood.
Mr Fitzsimons said vineyards west of the township had not been able to predict flood events which had twice threatened houses in the past decade.
"They [people at the meeting] were cynical about the ability of environmental impact reports to predict the effects a lake development may have on the water flows in the Ngaruroro [river]," he said.
Regional councillors Liz Remmerswaal and Tim Gilbertson explained how people could file submissions to the Higgins project, which would be subject to a hearing in the next couple of months. "Residents left the meeting with plans to lodge their objections as groups and individuals," Mr Fitzsimons said.
He said people were upset at the amount of time they had to lodge their objectives (about three weeks) compared to the time and resources Higgins had at its disposal to put its proposal.
