Taranaki composting business eyes appeal of consents decision rnz.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rnz.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A controversial composting and worm farming operation in North Taranaki - which has been linked to health problems and environmental damage - has had its application to renew its resource consents declined.
The future of a controversial organic composting site in North Taranaki is in doubt after the consents it needs to continue operating were not renewed.
The hearing commissioner’s decision on the renewal of resource consents for the site is expected to be released on Wednesday. The independent air quality report by Emissions Impossible director Lou Wickham, of Auckland, was commissioned by Taranaki District Health Board medical officer of health Dr Jonathan Jarman, and forwarded to Uruti residents following three complaints by residents in April. Wickham’s report on the Uruti site identified the “rotten egg” smell of hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, formaldehyde, and benzene were “likely” to be among the contaminants emitted from the site. Effects from the odours can be significant and include headaches, retching, depression, stress and loss of appetite, they said.
At this time of year the birds pair up and prepare burrows to lay eggs. “To see so many around now is certainly a good indication they are either breeding here, or trying to,” he said. The birds, which mate for life, are vulnerable to stoats due to their slow and clumsy behaviour when on the ground and nesting in burrows. Introduced predators are one of the main reasons the petrels have become so rare on New Zealand’s mainland, and the reason main breeding colonies remain on predator-free offshore islands. The only other mainland colony in Taranaki is protected by a predator-proof fence at Rapanui, near Tongaporutu, in North Taranaki, Shanley said.