Ruling on Ruakaka mill should be out soon

A decision on whether to allow a timber mill to operate on non-industrial land at Ruakaka should be made within the next few weeks.
Goldpine Industries has applied to the Whangarei District and Northland Regional Councils for consent to build the mill at Flyger Rd, Ruakaka, to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The application was heard by independent hearings commissioners over two days in March and two days last week.
The commissioners have now adjourned to consider their decision, which they must issue within 15 working days, unless they seek an extension to the deadline.
The mill would employ about 120 and the plan includes installing turning bays from State Highway One into Flyger Rd, sealing and widening Flyger Rd, discharging up to 9000cu m of stormwater a day into Ruakaka River and discharging about 6000 litres of effluent a day.
The plan drew 131 submissions, 85 opposing the mill, 45 supporting it and one neutral.
The company says the plan will have no more than minor environmental effects, but it has drawn a mixed response from the two councils. The district council recommended the application be declined while the regional council recommended all but one of the consents be granted.
The district council said the form, scale and intensity of the project would bring cumulative effects on the environment that could not be avoided, remedied or mitigated through conditions of consent.
The proposal was also inconsistent with many council objectives and policies and would create adverse effects in regard to traffic safety, visual character, hazardous substances and noise.
The proposal is for land zoned countryside and, if granted, the consent would signal that heavy industrial development was acceptable in such a zoning, district council staff said.
But the regional council has recommended declining only one of the consents that Goldpine applied for - to discharge treated condensate to a natural wetland.
Goldpine has applied to the regional council to discharge treated sewage to land, contaminants (primarily odour) from treated sewage to the air, to take water from the Ruakaka River, to discharge contaminants to air from the kiln, to discharge contaminants from treated timber, to discharge and divert stormwater from earthworks and the ongoing operation of the mill, to divert Ruakaka River floodwaters, to undertake 400,000cu m of earthworks and to remove vegetation from the riparian management zone.