Iwi want $50m for damage to Tarawera River

The Tasman mill's treatment ponds that flow into the river were described as the Black Drain when this photo was taken in 1997. Photo / NZ Herald

A $50 million Waitangi Tribunal compensation claim for damage to the Tarawera River is being planned by Eastern Bay of Plenty iwi Ngati Rangitihi.

The tribe has held a series of meetings at Matata to work out their claims and discuss their opposition to resource consent applications by Norske Skog and Carter Holt Harvey to continue discharging effluent into the river, and gases and dust to the air.

Ngati Rangitihi leader Tipene Marr said the loss of food resources caused by mill pollution added up to about $50 million for the families involved and that was what they would be seeking.

The Kawerau pulp and paper mills have been operating since the 1950s and for most of that time they were permitted to discharge wastes into the river and the air under a special enabling law.

Mr Marr said considering the Crown initially owned 51 per cent of the Tasman mill and shared in the responsibility for the mill's pollution, it was fitting the compensation claim should go to the Waitangi Tribunal.

In the mid-1990s, the discharges came under the umbrella of the Resource Management Act.

Environment Bay of Plenty, which is the act's main administering body as far as mill pollution is concerned, has required higher standards for mill discharges.

Norske Skog Tasman and Carter Holt Harvey Tasman are seeking to renew their resource consents for their discharges at a two-week joint hearing by EnvBOP and the Whakatane District Council.

But the companies say they have cleaned up their discharges as far as the available technology has allowed them, and there is little room for improvement.

Mr Marr said that was not good enough and Ngati Rangitihi would call for higher standards during the hearing.

For example, the iwi were seeking to have the river redirected through the Matata lagoon. But the tribe appear likely to be disappointed.

In an overview of the legal issues arising from the hearing, EnvBOP's counsel Paul Cooney told the hearing's committee that opposition to the consent applications on the grounds that Treaty claims to the river would be compromised were irrelevant.

The Green Party, too, was likely to be disappointed. It wanted stricter control on greenhouse gases emitted from the mill.

But Mr Cooney said the committee was not legally allowed to recognise the effects of such a discharge on climate change, because it was an issue to be dealt with at a national level.

Norske Skog and Carter Holt will receive 35-year terms for their consents if recommendations by EnvBOP staff members are approved.

- NZPA