A water bottling company wants to extend its consent to take water from Poroti Springs by 10 years to 2045.
Zodiac Holdings Ltd has asked the Northland Regional Council for a new consent to take up to 1000cu m of water from Waipao Stream (Poroti Springs).
The company has an existing 30-year consent to take the water until 2035, but has asked for a new consent to allow it to extract the water until 2045.
The matter will be heard by independent hearings commissioner Rob van Voorthuysen in the Cafler Room, Forum North, on January 29, but NRC staff have recommended that the consent be granted, with conditions.
When it was notified, the application drew six submissions, with four - from the Maungatapere Water Company (MWC), Whatatiri Reserve Trustees, Lorraine Norris and Richard Nathan - opposing the application and two - from NZ Spring Water and Whangarei District Council (WDC) - supporting it.
In its application, Zodiac Holdings said the objective was to provide long-term security of supply of spring water for bottling.
"In the present international trading and financial environment, the maximum term of consent available under the Resource management Act, namely 35 years, is required in order to justify the substantial capital investments required in New Zealand and offshore," Zodiac director Ian Thompson said.
He said the company had started to market its bottled water overseas and significant funding had been committed by NZ Spring Water as project marketing agent.
"It is critical, re future due diligence process, that long-term security of water supply for bottling can be demonstrated to offshore investors," Mr Thompson said.
The company wants consent to take 500cu m of water as of right and then another 500cu m when the other groups with consent to take from the stream - the WDC and MWC - were not using their full allocation. WDC has consent to take 15,045cu m daily and MWC 2955cu m.
Opposition to the application included a lack of face-to-face consultation, insufficient information to support the application and that the assessment of effects had not considered the cultural and spiritual values of Maori.
In his support of the application, NZ Spring Water director John O'Loghlen said an offshore investment of more than $10million would be needed to get the water bottling business to the required scale of operation to succeeded internationally.
"My estimate ... excludes the essential capital investment in New Zealand for land for bottling plant and product storage at Poroti (and perhaps at Marsden Pt)," Mr O'Loghlen said.
Water bottler wants Poroti access extended for offshore investment
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