May 31, 2017
Ngati Tama wins water consent review
Ngati Tama has won a judicial review of a consent allowing a company part-owned by neighbouring iwi to take water from the largest cold water springs in the Southern Hemisphere.
Kahurangi Virgin Waters, whose shareholders include Ngati Rarua and Te Atiawa, want to bottle water from Te Waikoropupu Springs, which contains some of the clearest water ever measured.
When the Tasman District Council first issued the consent in 2005 a group which then represented the three iwi gave written approval, so the cultural or spiritual effects of the application were not assessed.
Delays in building the plant meant the company sought extensions, but in 2012 Ngati Tama told the council it would not approve further extensions because the whole area was a waahi tapu.
An extension was granted anyway, as was one in 2016.
Justice Susan Thomas says the council wrongly interpreted provisions requiring evidence of substantial progress, and also the need to gain approval from parties who may be adversely affected.
She ordered the council to reconsider the extension application.
Ngati Tama kaumatua John Ward-Holmes says the importance of the springs to the iwi was spelled out in its historical Treaty of Waitangi settlement, and the judgment upholds its role as kaitiaki.
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