PRESS RELEASE

Raewyn Bennett

Candidate for Bay of Plenty Regional Council – Mauao Constituency

27 August 2013

Port must clean up their mess, says Bennett

Raewyn Bennett says Port Tauranga must not be allowed to squirm and procrastinate their way out of cleaning the mess they are making in Tauranga Harbour.

“It makes me sick when I hear that the port company has been knowingly and intentionally flushing untreated storm-water into the harbour. And it makes me even sicker when I hear they don’t really want to clean it up because they don’t want to pay for it,” says Bennett, who is running in the elections for Bay of Plenty Regional Council.

“Last week the port company bragged about making a $112 million profit, so it would be a bit rich for them to now claim poverty.”

Mrs Bennett said she recently discovered that the port company did not have a consent to discharge ground storm water – which contained numerous poisons, heavy metals and other substances – into the harbour, despite it being required to under the Resource Management Act.

“I’ll be asking questions about why the company was allowed to get away with this for so many years but for now the people of Tauranga have a right to know what’s happening to their harbour, especially given the extra protection it is in need of following the Rena disaster and the harbour dredging impacts.”

Mrs Bennett said iwi in Tauranga had recently gone out of their way to speak with the port company about their concerns.

“Iwi have put forward a number of ideas, one being the installation of a filtering system, to keep the harbour as clean as possible but it appears the company is still procrastinating,” said Mrs Bennett.

ends

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