West Coast's Naughty List: Late-night Mining, Buried Tyres And Dirty Water

Wednesday, 16 October 2024, 6:40 pm
Article: Lois Williams - Local Democracy Reporter

Winter and a wetter-than-usual spring on the West Coast have kept regional council staff on their toes this year - checking out potential rule-breaking by resource consent holders.

In the three months from late June to September, compliance staff made a total of 258 site visits around the region - about half of them to monitor resource consents for mining.

But they also investigated 50 complaints from the public involving everything from illicit gravel and sandmining to smelly landfills and dead cows sailing downstream.

Ten of the complaints proved well-founded, leading to warnings, or abatement or infringement notices.

Among the more notable: In South Westland, a tourism operator built a concrete slipway in the Waiatoto River without the necessary resource consent, staff reported.

"While the operator has been offered the opportunity to apply for a retrospective consent, it has not yet been granted. Further communication is ongoing to determine their intentions."

Mining in the dark made a novel appearance on the list: the covert digger operator was 'educated' about the rules by compliance staff for taking black sand from a Hokitika beach at night.

A person who buried tyres and a vehicle at Mitchells was given a warning and made to remove them.

A Kumara property owner who spilled fuel into a stormwater drain, which killed fish and crawlies when it entered a stream, has taken steps to prevent any repeats but could still face a penalty as enquiries continue, staff reported.

An operator digging gravel from the wet section of the Grey River bed was pinged for breaching his resource consent - while another who removed gravel at Haast was let off with a reminder of the rules, for not following 'permitted activity' conditions.

An Awatuna gold miner at German Gully is under investigation for muddying a creek.

And an Arthurstown gold miner who allowed dirty water to escape from an old mining tunnel, is to seal it off but may yet be penalised.

Compliance staff are taking action against the owner of a Paroa landfill where mud from a slip flowed into Mill Creek.

And there will be penalties for a Goldsborough goldminer who dug up an extra six hectares of land not covered by his resource consent.

Council staff checked out three reports of a bad smell coming from the private landfill at Greymouth's Coal Creek - but couldn't detect the offending odour at the time of their visits.

Demolition waste dumped into the riverbed behind recent flood protection works at Sergeants Hill is being investigated.

And council investigations continue into the Kokiri meatworks for repeated breaches of its resource consent.

Self-notification relating to the plant's yearly environmental reports had not been credible for the past three years, compliance staff concluded.

* LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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