The company hoping to reopen the old Sugarloaf quarry in South Westland says it needs access to stewardship conservation land to minimise visual impact, maximise the resource and do the job safely.
The quarry is about 7km away from the start of the popular Copland Track, but cannot be seen from the track or the highway.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Michal Klajban / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International
Kokiri Lime Ltd holds the mining rights to the former Westland Catchment Board and Ministry of Works quarry at Karangarua, between Fox Glacier and Bruce Bay, and is waiting to hear if the Department of Conservation will grant consent for it to operate on 15ha within the mining permit area.
Reefton s Rosco Contracting is also now complying with its consent, Helem said. The private dump was consented to take asbestos waste but was found to be taking demolition waste from Greymouth’s Kingsgate Hotel and was ordered to stop. The council had asked for an independent opinion on the staff s interpretation of the consent.
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The Kingsgate Hotel in Greymouth is being demolished. Senior consents officer Rachel Clark told a community board meeting in Reefton last week that the council investigated all complaints but did not have the resources to constantly monitor every dumpsite from Karamea to Haast. Helem said that was a fair statement.
The West Coast Regional Council has taken no further action against two private dumps that were found to be bending the rules of their resource consents.
The West Coast Regional Council says Sewell Peak Farm Ltd and Reefton s Rosco Contracting are now complying with their consents.
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Sewell Peak Farm Ltd was served with an abatement notice after demolition waste containing metal and plastic from Grey Base Hospital was found at its Taylorville site.
The company - one of whose directors is former regional council chairman Andrew Robb - was consented for clean fill only.
The council s compliance team leader, Colin Helem, said the concrete waste is now being crushed to remove the steel, and staff are monitoring the site.
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Drone footage shows full extent of the damage to the Waiho Bridge, near Franz Josef on the West Coast, in March 2019.
A proposal to buy out flood-prone farming land at Franz Josef and move the state highway away from the Waiho River will be put before the Government. The West Coast Regional Council sees the project as a longer term solution to the town’s hazards than building more stopbanks. It would involve 2500 hectares of private land with a capital value of $30 million. The Government announced on Wednesday that it would release $12m for new stopbanks along the northern banks of the flood-prone Waiho River.
“Sediment from the slip is causing blockages, breakouts and flooding of downstream properties and the state highway,” the engineering team reported. “A drone was used to assess the extent of the slip, which showed the slip face is still highly unstable, with significant volumes of sediment and debris yet to work its way downstream.” There was no easy remedy for the problem, staff said. “To clear debris from the stream bed would involve significant earthworks that would cause detrimental impacts in other areas, and have no guarantee of success.”
West Coast Regional Council/Stuff
Sediment and debris have built up about 600 metres below the slip at Lake Stream on the West Coast.