Flags opposing the pipeline erected at the protest site at sacred Lake Rotokākahi. Photo: LDR / Laura Smith
A legal bid to stop a sewerage pipe being installed in a wāhi tapu area near Rotorua has failed in the Environment Court.
Works on the Tarawera Sewerage Scheme paused about a month ago following applications to the Environment Court by groups protesting the works at Lake Rotokākahi.
Construction had restarted, with police present, only days earlier after protests and injunction proceedings halted progress for months.
The scheme would connect about 440 Lake Tarawera properties to the public wastewater network, aiming to reduce pollution of the lake from septic tanks.
About 23km of pipeline was built, with the remaining 1.4km to run along Tarawera Rd parallel to Lake Rotokākahi.
The area is considered wāhi tapu by mana whenua, with tūpuna (ancestors) buried nearby during the 1886 Mt Tarawera eruption.
The Rotokākahi Board of Control and Protect Rotokākahi Incorporated initiated Environment Court proceedings on 21 and 25 February and asserted, among other things, that the council should have acquired resource consent for the works.
They asked for an enforcement order to stop works that risked damage or disturbance to wāhi tapu or burial sites.
An urgent hearing was held in the Environment Court on 19 March.
Lake Tarawera near Rotorua. Photo: LDR/Laura Smith
Judge Laurie Newhook and Deputy Environment Commissioner Glenice Paine issued their decision dismissing the applications on Tuesday.
Their decision said they had no doubt the sewerage reticulation project was in the public's interest.
"Improving the quality of the freshwater in Lake Tarawera must be a given, for all relevant communities including Māori."
They found there had been "extensive consideration of options" for the scheme since 2018, and considerable attempts by the council at engagement including hui, correspondence, and offers of mitigation.
"Regrettably we find that the applicants have simply not accepted any ideas that did not reflect their own."
Nor could the applicants command a "right of veto" under the Resource Management Act.
The decision said that while the cultural offence from "piping of paru through a tapu area" was considerable for the Māori community, it may not be to the wider community.
There were also competing factors of importance to the wider community, and the court did not believe the project met the high threshold set in other relevant cases.
"We say this with some regret because we do understand the cultural offence felt by the applicants and other Māori."
Newhook and Paine were also critical of the timing in the case, given physical project works started two years ago.
"While we remain concerned at the council's last-minute acknowledgement of a need for a resource consent, signalled by its issuing of the [RMA section 87BB] notice six weeks ago, we find … the bringing of these proceedings as late in the piece as they have … is the antithesis of timeliness.
"A considerable amount of time was consumed in protests and injunction proceedings, rather than the pursuit of any action under the RMA, let alone the taking of any judicial review proceeding in the High Court."
They found the council's "eleventh hour" issuing itself the s87BB notice was "somewhat inflammatory" and a major catalyst for the proceedings.
Aspects of the applicants' case against the notice were out of the Environment Court jurisdiction but could be raised through a High Court judicial review.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
