Headline: Green Party Ikaroa-Rāwhiti candidate calls for halt on drilling waste disposal
I do not support the landfarming of fracking waste and I am very concerned that milk from these farms is going into the milk supply.
The Horizons and Gisborne District Council should not give permits for toxic waste water from drilling sites near Dannevirke and Gisborne to be disposed of on dairy farms in Taranaki, says Marama Davidson, the Green Party candidate for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti.
The call follows revelations on Campbell Live last night that fracking waste was being spread on landfarms in Taranaki that are supplying milk to Fonterra.
“I do not support the landfarming of fracking waste and I am very concerned that milk from these farms is going into the milk supply,” said Ms Davidson.
“Members of Taranaki iwi Ngaruahine and Ngati Haaua hapū last week blockaded the entrance to the land farming site close to Tawhitinui marae on Brown Road, Waikaikai near Hawera.
“As the Campbell Live news story last night showed, there are some serious conflicts of interest in the consenting process in Taranaki and Horizons and Gisborne Councils need to stay out of that.
“There are serious environmental problems with this practice and there are serious cultural considerations at stake as well.
“It is a huge cultural offence to dump your waste on someone else’s whenua and that is what the regional councils are consenting to. They should stop.
Ms Davidson said TAG Oil specifically identified the Taranaki land-farming disposal sites in its Resource Consent applications to Horizons Regional Council and Gisborne District Council.
“This is a PR disaster for Fonterra and Taranaki, but more importantly it is a cultural disaster for the hapū affected on both sides of the island.
“Fracking is not our future. Most of the profits go off shore to the big oil companies and there are very few jobs.
We need to find environmentally safe jobs that don’t put our whenua at risk”
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