Conservation Group To Push For Tight 1080 Consent Rules

A Coromandel conservation group is welcoming shortened terms for 1080 resource consents, but is demanding that the public have input before final permissions are issued and conditions for the poison operations are established.

The Upper Coromandel Landcare Association (UCLA) has been spearheading a national campaign against the requested 10-year and 20-year renewals for helicopter companies Epro and EcoFX to dump 1080 into waterways throughout the Waikato. In response to the UCLA campaign against the long-term consents, Epro and EcoFX have amended their applications to ask for only one-year renewals from Environment Waikato regional council.

EW notified UCLA today of the shift down to one-year consents, but also made public its decision not to publicly notify the applications to discharge the toxin into waterways.

According to UCLA spokesperson Reihana Robinson, “The 10-year consents were outrageous from the outset. Carte blanche permission to drop poisons into Waikato drinking water catchments for a decade would have been a grave insult.”

“But EW has failed the region by its refusal to publicly notify the applications. Council may notify an application if it considers that special circumstances exist that make notification beneficial to the public, and those circumstances exist here. People from one end of the region to the other, pakeha and tangata whenua, are adversely affected and should be heard,” Robinson said.

UCLA announced that it will continue its campaign for strict conditions on any 1080 operations allowed under the new consents, including robust public consultation on each drop and requirements for pre- and post-operation monitoring, increased setbacks, bonding, disposal of carcasses, and other precautions.

“The time has come for EW to put human health and fragile ecosystems ahead of the profits of helicopter poison companies,” Robinson said. “There have been enough accidents, enough insult to cultural values, and enough damage to non-target species from these 1080 drops. EW needs to listen to the public and to put some teeth into consent conditions.”

ENDS

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