South Island Resource Recovery Ltd (SIRRL), the joint venture company proposing to build an energy-from-waste plant at Glenavy in South Canterbury, announced yesterday it had again lodged its Resource Management Act consent documents with Environment Canterbury (ECan) and the Waimate District Council (WDC).
The lodgement follows an earlier application made in September which was sent back to SIRRL by the two territorial authorities, saying more information was needed.
SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the application was complex and highly technical.
He was confident the additional information, including further expert evidence and data, would meet the assessment needs of local government officials and expert consultants for their consideration.
"If the application is accepted and resource consent approved, it would be the first facility of its kind to be built and safely operate in New Zealand.
"SIRRL has also reached out to iwi to work together on the proposed plant," he said in the statement.
"New Zealand is fast growing out of options to safely dispose of waste.
"Minimisation of waste at source and recycling as much as possible need to be the major priorities for our nation, but we continue to face a growing waste crisis and its associated production of climate-changing methane emissions.
"Established dump sites are ageing and failing, many near coastal townships, yet large tracts of land are being rendered unproductive as more landfill operations are being consented. We simply can’t continue to bury our amassing problem in the ground.
"Energy-from-waste technology has advanced considerably and quickly, and if we look to prosperous European Union members, there are as many as 497 plants safely converting non-hazardous waste from households, industry, and the building sector into an alternative energy source.
"In countries such as Austria, landfills are being banned altogether.
"We’ve also had extensive and beneficial discussions with local doctors, to further add depth to the information we’ve provided in the application, and to also answer concerns they recently raised given the newness of this technology to New Zealand."
Waimate GPs had raised questions about the plant and SIRRL said in its statement it had met the GPs.
The company had also proposed having community meetings in Waimate and Glenavy to meet the community and discuss the project.
It would have those meetings once the consent applications are accepted for consideration.
Environment Canterbury will process the consents and advised earlier this month it was experiencing delays in processing resource consent applications due to staffing challenges and the increasing complexity of applications.
By: Staff reporter
