Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Premium
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Prison stormwater discharge consent hearing begins

Mike Tweed
By Mike Tweed
Multimedia Journalist·Whanganui Chronicle·
17 Nov, 2020 04:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Representatives from the Department of Corrections (far side), Horizons Regional Council (near side) and submitters (left) at the consent hearing on Tuesday morning. Photo / Bevan Conley

Representatives from the Department of Corrections (far side), Horizons Regional Council (near side) and submitters (left) at the consent hearing on Tuesday morning. Photo / Bevan Conley

Years after the original resource consent ran out, a new hearing is under way for permission to continue discharging stormwater from Whanganui Prison to a water channel.

The water channel links lakes Pauri and Wiritoa at Kaitoke.

The original discharge consent ran out in December 2013, but the Department of Corrections applied for fresh consent within six months so discharge has continued legally since then.

The hearing for the new consent from Horizons Regional Council began on Tuesday before a panel of three independent commissioners, led by chairman David McMahon.

McMahon said he was "very fortunate" to be joined by fellow commissioners Liz Burge and Sharon McGarry.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"They have a wealth of experience, not only in hearings, but in two topics that are probably going to be to the forefront of decision making for this hearing, those being iwi and cultural matters, and water quality and ecology matters," McMahon said.

"That makes my job a lot easier, and it allows me to steer the ship, so to speak."

Stormwater from Whanganui Prison is currently discharged to a water channel between lakes Wiritoa (pictured) and Pauri at Kaitoke. Photo / Bevan Conley
Stormwater from Whanganui Prison is currently discharged to a water channel between lakes Wiritoa (pictured) and Pauri at Kaitoke. Photo / Bevan Conley

The Department of Corrections is seeking consent until 2044, with the application being prepared by consultants Boffa Miskell.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

At present, both Pauri and Wiritoa lakes are subject to algal blooms, but, according to the application, the prison discharge is "a relatively small contributor" to their overall water quality.

Stormwater management specialist Peter Cochrane, who will present evidence on behalf of the applicant, said the adverse effects of the discharge on water quality in Lake Wiritoa will be "negligible", and will improve water quality to help meet the One Plan Regional Plan targets for deep coastal lakes.

Discover more

Regional council to decide on prison stormwater discharge

02 Nov 04:00 PM

Koha Shed collecting supplies for Napier flood relief

16 Nov 04:00 PM

Quality food needed at Maria Place pop-up

13 Nov 04:00 PM

Defence Force buys farm for Ohakea base expansion

10 Nov 04:00 PM

Submissions from the Department of Corrections and its expert witnesses are expected to last until around lunchtime on Wednesday. From there it will be the turn of submitters, led by Ngāti Apa and Te Rūnanga o Tūpoho, to speak on their submissions and evidence, and answer questions from the commissioners.

This will be followed by supplementary evidence from expert witnesses Horizons' freshwater manager Logan Brown and senior consents planner Natasha Adsett on Wednesday afternoon, with the hearing set to close on Thursday morning.

McMahon said the commissioners had "a very useful first visit" to Whanganui Prison on Monday.

"We had a visit inside the wire, which was quite intimidating I must say," McMahon said.

"I've definitely decided to put any criminal activity on hold for the time being.

"We then went outside the wire and had a look at a number of facilities, including the discharge outlet which goes into the channel, and we went around both lakes before ending up at the camp ground."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
NewsletterClicker
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

Body of missing man found

Whanganui Chronicle

End of the line for former St George's School buildings

Whanganui Chronicle

Netball: Kaierau edge Pirates in thrilling Premier 1 clash


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Body of missing man found
Whanganui Chronicle

Body of missing man found

Kahu Gill's body was recovered near the Cobham Bridge on July 14.

16 Jul 08:34 PM
End of the line for former St George's School buildings
Whanganui Chronicle

End of the line for former St George's School buildings

16 Jul 06:00 PM
Netball: Kaierau edge Pirates in thrilling Premier 1 clash
Whanganui Chronicle

Netball: Kaierau edge Pirates in thrilling Premier 1 clash

16 Jul 05:00 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP