'Friendly Coasters'

Forest and Bird, Issue 299, 1 February 2001, Page 3

'Friendly Coasters'

In his last editorial, Keith Chapple again talks of extending the hand of friendship to the people of the West Coast. This is something we do wherever possible, but there’s still lots of situations where we must confront that section of the Coast population who promote resource extraction with no thought for the environment. At present, the Resource Management Act virtu-

ally guarantees developers a win. We experienced this when Talleys Fisheries applied to build a fish offal plant in a public park, with waste water discharged direct to the Buller River. Under the RMA rules, our development-at-any-cost council selected the commissioners and they found in favour of Talleys. We appealed to the Environment Court who agreed we had a case, but demanded a $16,000 bond before it would proceed. With only $50 in the kitty, of course we had to pull out. The factory is now a reality. There’ve been scores of complaints over fish smells, and the regional council is currently prosecuting Talleys for allegedly polluting the river. On a familiar front, Coast greenies are still battling Timberlands continued logging in Okarito and other old-growth forests. Pete Lusk, Westport