The Department of Conservation (Doc) and Port Otago have been in discussions since the department submitted against the project due to concerns about a lack of information and the potential adverse effects on the environment in the lower harbour, Director-general's counsel Pene Williams told the 10th day of Port Otago's resource consent hearing yesterday.
The director-general did not want to make undertaking "this significant project harder" for the applicant but did want to ensure adverse effects on the environment were avoided, remedied or mitigated, Ms Williams said.
Doc presented a range of new conditions to the panel that itself and the port company had agreed to.
The agreement by the port company to establish "a robust and independent monitoring regime" including baseline and ongoing monitoring and an independent technical group was "highly significant", she said.
A technical group, including members from Doc, Port Otago, the Otago Regional Council and representatives from runanga, would assist in setting up the monitoring studies and have the ability to make recommendations the port company was required to consider and "implement to the extent practicable", and would report to the consent authority.
Conditions agreed to would also require the port company to avoid dredging when there could be adverse effects on significant areas such as the Aromoana Ecological Area and the indigenous species that used those habitats.
Another condition required a "competent observer" to be on board any dredge to ensure it avoided contact with marine mammals and feeding birds, she said.
Panel chairman John Lumsden said the panel was seeking assurance that conditions proposed were robust enough to deal with the effects if the modelling used by the port company was wrong.
Doc technical support officer Bruce McKinlay said Doc was concerned a lot of the assessment was made on modelling without on-site data to underpin it but it had "moulded its concerns into a package" to get real data that could be analysed on a regular basis.
Southern Clams managing director Roger Belton said the company, which commercially harvested clams in Otago Harbour and Blueskin inlet, did not accept the proposed conditions (written before Doc and the port company came to an agreement) and environmental management plan were adequate to avoid, prevent or mitigate adverse effects on the Otago Harbour and Blueskin Gyre systems.
The biggest threats were suspended sediments from proposed capital dredging programme. He believed the plan was "essentially cosmetic and largely insubstantial".
Consultant scientist Brian Stewart, on behalf of Southern Clams and Otago fishing organisations, believed the project should be deferred until sufficient baseline monitoring had been carried out to establish thresholds at which adverse ecological effects might occur.
Consultant scientist Bryony Black said the sediment deposition levels estimated by the port company posed considerable threats to the validity of the Southern Clams Otago Harbour research consent.
Panel: John Lumsden (chairman), Hugh Leersnyder, Dr Mike Johnston.
Proposal
- Upgrade channel berth and swinging areas, disposing 7.2 million cu m at sea.
- Extend multipurpose wharf by 135m.
- Construct fishing wharf at end of Boiler Pt walkway.
Where: Otago Regional Council, Dunedin
Day: 10 Submitters' evidence
Giving evidence yesterday: Director-general of conservation (represented by counsel Pene Williams and RMA planner Bruce Hill), Harington Point Community Society's Graeme Burns, Careys Bay Association's Cheryl Adams, Careys Bay residents Ms Adams and Ian Stephenson, fishers Teone Taiaroa and Sarah Valk, fisherman Neil McDonald, Southern Clams' Roger Belton, consultant environmental scientist Dr Brian Stewart and marine scientist Bryony Black.
Quote of day -
"Project next generation represents another chapter in the continuation of further environmental decline which will only contribute to impoverishment of Otago fisheries" - Roger Belton.
