March 28, 2017
Ngati Ruanui cries foul over EPA extension
A south Taranaki iwi is crying foul the Environmental Protection Agency has extended hearings on an offshore iron sand mining application until the end of May.
The last hearing on TransTasman Resources’ plan to scoop up iron sand off the coast of Patea was supposed to be the end, but the EPA says it wants to hear more from the company on the proposed operation and its effects.
Te Runanga o Ngati Ruanui chief executive Debbie Ngarewa Packer says the committee seems to have gone out of its way during the hearings to give the company an advantage.
"What we see is they are struggle with the information, they are struggling through the competing information against the applicant, TTR, and I think they have extended it because they have asked them to go back and re-prove their modelling of the sediment plume and clearly they can't make a decision. From our point of view the Act is really clear – if there is uncertainty, they should turn it down," she says.
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says the extension that means more cost and effort for objectors.
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