It was very good to see Government pull back from putting most of Rodney District under control of the very lax and coastline careless Kaipara District Council. Lockwood Smith got a real roasting at a public meeting in Matakana. Completely misjudged what the locals were interested in.
He assumed they'd want coastal development enabled; that they'd support a new motorway through there; and that they'd like the red tape in the way of more development done away with. How wrong he was. You'd think he'd know about NIMBY. Sometimes that conservative force can be a force for good. In this case. It was.
So what about the Southern Boundary? At the moment there is some confusion around why Government would really want to carve up the Hunua Regional Park, and take that, plus two of Auckland's biggest water supply dams, and pass control of the lot to Environment Waikato. At the moment there's no change to that plan.
What's it all about?
Well. There's a lot on information about this floating around. Not all of it makes me happy. Makes me remember a challenging time in my life. When I took on Watercare oevr the Waikato Pipeline. Took them to the Environment Court, with tomato grower John Hamilton. And Tainui. We were all appealing Watercare's resource consent application to take water from the waikato River, treat it, and direct it into Auckland's town supply.
I was worried about a lot of things, but the issue came down to: cryptosporidium in the raw water (from dairy, had found the incidence of cryptosporidiosis in Waikato Region was around 10x what it was in Auckland); other contaminants including organo-chlorines from chemicals routinely put in the water by farming industry etc; and the fact there were about 20+ communiyt waste water schemes all discharging into the Waikato River. John Hamilton was supported by Fed Farmers, they were worried about organochlorines getting into town supply, putting at risk sensitive crops. Tainui had a range of issues, including issues about mixing of waters, and other things. I thought they were in there for the long haul.
Then. I think it was the Sunday before the Environment Court hearing (we are talking 1997 here), I got a phone call that they'd withdrawn their appeal. Found out a few days later that Tainui had been interested in a chunk of land where Watercare was proposing to put its abstraction point (structure at the water intake point). Watercare had made Tainui an offer. An offer of land. Tainui jumped at it, and agreed to withdraw their appeal.
I felt betrayed. 30 pieces of silver was all it took to buy them off.
But I digress. What has all this to do with Auckland losing its dams? Well. A lot actually. For a few years now, Tainui has been progressing a treaty claim in regard to the Waikato River. It seems that Michael Cullen was involved as a Minister, and still is. I understand he's even being paid by Tainui. For his efforts on their behalf.
So now this water deal is getting close to being sorted out. The Maori Party know all about this of course. And, it seems, have done a deal with National, to support the realigned boundary for Auckland SuperCity, provided Tainui get those water assets, as part of its treaty settlement.
You might see the similarity - between what's happening now - and Tainui in 1997.
The upshot seems to be, that most of Auckland's water supply - the Mangatawhiri and Mangatangi dams - will be handed - through Environment Waikato - to Tainui on a plate. Then they'll sell that water to Watercare, for onsale to Aucklanders.
A sort of Tangata Whenua/Tainui water privatisation.
Stinks doesn't it.
The right thing to do would be for Environment Waikato and Government to work with Tainui on joint management of Waikato River and tributaries presently in Waikato. The positive thing about Tainui was its anger over diary water pollution and its desire to cleanup the Waikato. There's nothing dirty about the water that gets into the Waikato from Auckland's water supply catchments....
There is something rotten in the State of Denmark.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Tainui - Not Auckland's most reliable water mate...
It was very good to see Government pull back from putting most of Rodney District under control of the very lax and coastline careless Kaipara District Council. Lockwood Smith got a real roasting at a public meeting in Matakana. Completely misjudged what the locals were interested in.
He assumed they'd want coastal development enabled; that they'd support a new motorway through there; and that they'd like the red tape in the way of more development done away with. How wrong he was. You'd think he'd know about NIMBY. Sometimes that conservative force can be a force for good. In this case. It was.
So what about the Southern Boundary? At the moment there is some confusion around why Government would really want to carve up the Hunua Regional Park, and take that, plus two of Auckland's biggest water supply dams, and pass control of the lot to Environment Waikato. At the moment there's no change to that plan.
What's it all about?
Well. There's a lot on information about this floating around. Not all of it makes me happy. Makes me remember a challenging time in my life. When I took on Watercare oevr the Waikato Pipeline. Took them to the Environment Court, with tomato grower John Hamilton. And Tainui. We were all appealing Watercare's resource consent application to take water from the waikato River, treat it, and direct it into Auckland's town supply.
I was worried about a lot of things, but the issue came down to: cryptosporidium in the raw water (from dairy, had found the incidence of cryptosporidiosis in Waikato Region was around 10x what it was in Auckland); other contaminants including organo-chlorines from chemicals routinely put in the water by farming industry etc; and the fact there were about 20+ communiyt waste water schemes all discharging into the Waikato River. John Hamilton was supported by Fed Farmers, they were worried about organochlorines getting into town supply, putting at risk sensitive crops. Tainui had a range of issues, including issues about mixing of waters, and other things. I thought they were in there for the long haul.
Then. I think it was the Sunday before the Environment Court hearing (we are talking 1997 here), I got a phone call that they'd withdrawn their appeal. Found out a few days later that Tainui had been interested in a chunk of land where Watercare was proposing to put its abstraction point (structure at the water intake point). Watercare had made Tainui an offer. An offer of land. Tainui jumped at it, and agreed to withdraw their appeal.
I felt betrayed. 30 pieces of silver was all it took to buy them off.
But I digress. What has all this to do with Auckland losing its dams? Well. A lot actually. For a few years now, Tainui has been progressing a treaty claim in regard to the Waikato River. It seems that Michael Cullen was involved as a Minister, and still is. I understand he's even being paid by Tainui. For his efforts on their behalf.
So now this water deal is getting close to being sorted out. The Maori Party know all about this of course. And, it seems, have done a deal with National, to support the realigned boundary for Auckland SuperCity, provided Tainui get those water assets, as part of its treaty settlement.
You might see the similarity - between what's happening now - and Tainui in 1997.
The upshot seems to be, that most of Auckland's water supply - the Mangatawhiri and Mangatangi dams - will be handed - through Environment Waikato - to Tainui on a plate. Then they'll sell that water to Watercare, for onsale to Aucklanders.
A sort of Tangata Whenua/Tainui water privatisation.
Stinks doesn't it.
The right thing to do would be for Environment Waikato and Government to work with Tainui on joint management of Waikato River and tributaries presently in Waikato. The positive thing about Tainui was its anger over diary water pollution and its desire to cleanup the Waikato. There's nothing dirty about the water that gets into the Waikato from Auckland's water supply catchments....
There is something rotten in the State of Denmark.
He assumed they'd want coastal development enabled; that they'd support a new motorway through there; and that they'd like the red tape in the way of more development done away with. How wrong he was. You'd think he'd know about NIMBY. Sometimes that conservative force can be a force for good. In this case. It was.
So what about the Southern Boundary? At the moment there is some confusion around why Government would really want to carve up the Hunua Regional Park, and take that, plus two of Auckland's biggest water supply dams, and pass control of the lot to Environment Waikato. At the moment there's no change to that plan.
What's it all about?
Well. There's a lot on information about this floating around. Not all of it makes me happy. Makes me remember a challenging time in my life. When I took on Watercare oevr the Waikato Pipeline. Took them to the Environment Court, with tomato grower John Hamilton. And Tainui. We were all appealing Watercare's resource consent application to take water from the waikato River, treat it, and direct it into Auckland's town supply.
I was worried about a lot of things, but the issue came down to: cryptosporidium in the raw water (from dairy, had found the incidence of cryptosporidiosis in Waikato Region was around 10x what it was in Auckland); other contaminants including organo-chlorines from chemicals routinely put in the water by farming industry etc; and the fact there were about 20+ communiyt waste water schemes all discharging into the Waikato River. John Hamilton was supported by Fed Farmers, they were worried about organochlorines getting into town supply, putting at risk sensitive crops. Tainui had a range of issues, including issues about mixing of waters, and other things. I thought they were in there for the long haul.
Then. I think it was the Sunday before the Environment Court hearing (we are talking 1997 here), I got a phone call that they'd withdrawn their appeal. Found out a few days later that Tainui had been interested in a chunk of land where Watercare was proposing to put its abstraction point (structure at the water intake point). Watercare had made Tainui an offer. An offer of land. Tainui jumped at it, and agreed to withdraw their appeal.
I felt betrayed. 30 pieces of silver was all it took to buy them off.
But I digress. What has all this to do with Auckland losing its dams? Well. A lot actually. For a few years now, Tainui has been progressing a treaty claim in regard to the Waikato River. It seems that Michael Cullen was involved as a Minister, and still is. I understand he's even being paid by Tainui. For his efforts on their behalf.
So now this water deal is getting close to being sorted out. The Maori Party know all about this of course. And, it seems, have done a deal with National, to support the realigned boundary for Auckland SuperCity, provided Tainui get those water assets, as part of its treaty settlement.
You might see the similarity - between what's happening now - and Tainui in 1997.
The upshot seems to be, that most of Auckland's water supply - the Mangatawhiri and Mangatangi dams - will be handed - through Environment Waikato - to Tainui on a plate. Then they'll sell that water to Watercare, for onsale to Aucklanders.
A sort of Tangata Whenua/Tainui water privatisation.
Stinks doesn't it.
The right thing to do would be for Environment Waikato and Government to work with Tainui on joint management of Waikato River and tributaries presently in Waikato. The positive thing about Tainui was its anger over diary water pollution and its desire to cleanup the Waikato. There's nothing dirty about the water that gets into the Waikato from Auckland's water supply catchments....
There is something rotten in the State of Denmark.
1 comment:
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Hmm - and what about Franklin District? There is no reason to carve up our area just to satisfy the greater auckland advocates. The most logical outcome would be to create a unitary authority in the rural areas of Franklin, Papakura and perhaps Manukau and let the ARC assets in these areas be subject to normal ownership and local body control. The only argument for getting all the Auckland Regional Parks and water assets into the Auckland Council area is so that the centralists won't have to defend their decisions to the local people - Tainui or otherwise.
Bob Lack, Franklin -
September 27, 2009 at 2:28 PM
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1 comment:
Hmm - and what about Franklin District? There is no reason to carve up our area just to satisfy the greater auckland advocates. The most logical outcome would be to create a unitary authority in the rural areas of Franklin, Papakura and perhaps Manukau and let the ARC assets in these areas be subject to normal ownership and local body control. The only argument for getting all the Auckland Regional Parks and water assets into the Auckland Council area is so that the centralists won't have to defend their decisions to the local people - Tainui or otherwise.
Bob Lack, Franklin
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