“The Zero Waste Network Aotearoa strongly supports the decision by ECAN and Waimate District Council to return to SIRRL the company’s application for resource consent to build a massive waste incinerator due to the lack of a Cultural Impact Assessment (CIA). Not only is this a legal requirement of the RMA, it is a best practice approach for Councils acting as a Treaty partner,” said Dorte Wray, General Manager of the Zero Waste Network Aotearoa.

“Under Schedule 4, section 7d, of the RMA, an application must cover off any cultural matters associated with an activity’s environmental impact. Given that the company has itself promoted this as a very large scale and totally new technology, it is absolutely reasonable that the Councils would want a complete application that addresses all matters from the outset.”

“Local and Regional Councils should not have to waste time and money processing half-baked consent applications for toxic waste incinerator projects that do not have all of their documentation in order. The cultural impacts on Mana Whenua are not some ‘add on’ to an application - they are fundamental to it.”

“A consent application for another waste-to-energy pyrolysis proposal in Feilding has been delayed due to the company’s failure to conduct a CIA. In that case, Horizons Regional Council should have done what ECAN did, and reject the initial application as inadequate. Six months on from the public hearings, the application still hasn’t been decided upon because of the lack of basic information, and the Council’s own experts recommend not granting consent. It is an enormous waste of Council and community member’s time and ratepayer money.”

“It is not acceptable for cashed up corporations to roll into small provincial communities with toxic waste proposals that pollute the land, air and water, and ignore Mana Whenua. The SIRRL waste incinerator will turn the community of Waimate into a dumping ground for South Island garbage, and deliver no benefits for the local people.”

“Real zero waste solutions start with a Te Tiriti-centred approach that puts Māori front and centre of creating lasting and just solutions.”

© Scoop Media