South Island Resource Recovery Ltd board director Paul Taylor has challenged the need for a cultural impact assessment before local authorities accept an application for resource consent for the project, and he says he is offering a way forward.
The two consenting authorities, Environment Canterbury (ECan) and the Waimate District Council, called the applications for the project incomplete late last year.
It was the second time the authorities have sent the applications back. In September the application was rejected for insufficient information being supplied about the proposed activities of the waste-to-energy plant and its effect on the environment. In December, the councils said they needed to see a cultural impact assessment before processing the application.
The proposal for a $350 million plant north of the Waitaki River would convert 365,000 tonnes of waste, that would otherwise be sent to South Island landfills each year, into renewable electricity.
The project — if it goes ahead — would be the first of its kind in New Zealand.
The councils said there could be wide-reaching effects, including many unknown effects on mana whenua.
In a letter to the councils, provided to the Otago Daily Times, Mr Taylor said "early discussions" had taken place with Te Runanga o Waihao, Te Runanga o Arowhenua and Te Runanga o Moeraki.
He said on the basis of those discussions the company understood a cultural impact assessment would be completed after the application had been lodged, and after the runanga had the opportunity to review the reports of experts engaged by the councils to assess the effects of the proposal.
"We understand that to be normal practice nationwide," Mr Taylor said.
Consultants for the company had the benefit of considering a 2019 cultural impact assessment prepared on behalf of Te Runanga o Waihao for a nearby Oceania Dairy Ltd discharge application.
While that cultural impact assessment related to a different project, it was on a site located about 1km from the proposed Project Kea site, he said. Accordingly, that assessment helped the company understand the important cultural values near the proposed waste-to-energy site generally.
The early discussions with runanga representatives so far suggested the cultural values did not differ significantly between the two sites.
He said a section of the application already included a "comprehensive and sympathetic analysis of possible cultural value issues".
He informed the councils the company’s advisers had been instructed to lodge a notice of objection to the councils’ decision to reject the application by the end of this month.
Unless an agreement could be reached, the company wanted its objection to be formally heard by an independent commissioner by the end of March.
The proposed Project Kea will be a joint venture partnership between New Zealand company Renew Energy Ltd and China Tianying Inc, of China.
In partnership, as South Island Resource Recovery Ltd, they bought 15ha of land near Glenavy to build the proposed plant.
The final sale of the land is subject to a resource consent to build the plant being granted.
A Waimate District Council spokesman said the council had no further comment at this stage.
An ECan spokeswoman said key staff were on leave and it was not immediately clear yesterday if the council wanted to respond to Mr Taylor’s letter.
