Roil Contracting Ltd (RCL) and Patrick Roil have been convicted and fined $60,000 for stream reclamation works in the Pauatahanui Inlet.

Mr Roil and RCL earlier pleaded guilty to charges laid by Greater Wellington under the Resource Management Act 1991.

GW laid three charges against each party in December 2010 alleging that approximately 60 metres of the stream had been reclaimed and smothered with cleanfill and non-cleanfill material causing it to be diverted and become laden with sediment. (Read on …)

LAWYERS working with the environmental activist Erin Brockovich are considering class action over a toxic leak from the Orica plant on Kooragang Island, north of Newcastle.

Clean-up crews and trucks from Hunter’s Mainstream Industries were out in force yesterday as residents remained concerned about the potential health impacts of the chromium cloud that was blown over Stockton last Monday.

The Herald was told by health officials yesterday that as much as 10 kilograms of the potentially carcinogenic hexavalent chromium – chromium six – material was accidentally released into the atmosphere in the half-hour or so before the problem was noticed. (Read on …)

A UN report has criticised Shell and the Nigerian government for contributing to 50 years of pollution in a region of the Niger Delta which it says needs the world’s largest ever oil clean-up, costing an initial US$1 billion (NZ$1.2b) and taking up to 30 years.

The United National Environment Programme (UNEP) analysed the damage oil pollution has done in Ogoniland, a region in the oil-rich labyrinthine creeks, swamps and waterways of the Niger Delta, the heartland of Africa’s largest oil and gas industry.

Royal Dutch Shell and the Nigerian state-oil firm own most of the oil infrastructure in Ogoniland, although the Anglo-Dutch giant was forced out of operating in the region by communities in 1993 who said it caused pollution that destroyed their fishing environment.

Shell stopped pumping oil from Ogoniland after a campaign, led by writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was later hanged by the Nigerian military government, provoking international outrage. (Read on …)

THE coal seam gas industry has conceded that extraction will inevitably contaminate aquifers.

The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association told a fiery public meeting in Sydney that good management could minimise the risks of water contamination, but never eliminate them.

”Drilling will, to varying degrees, impact on adjoining aquifers,” said the spokesman, Ross Dunn. ”The extent of impact and whether the impact can be managed is the question.”

The admissions came before the start of the first public hearing in NSW, held in Narrabri, of a Senate inquiry into the effects of coal seam gas mining. (Read on …)

Already polluted lakes and rivers will only get worse under a flawed fresh-water policy, a new report warns.

Regional councils have been given too long – up to 30 years – to set pollution limits, the Cawthron Institute report says in a study commissioned by Fish and Game New Zealand.

“Imagine how many more rivers and lakes we’re going to lose to agricultural pollution in the interim,” chief executive Bryce Johnson said.

Environment Minister Nick Smith issued the national policy statement on fresh-water management in May, saying it gave clear directions to councils on the importance of improving water management.

At the time, Green Party co-leader Russel Norman accused Dr Smith of “taking the teeth” out of an earlier version recommended by a board of inquiry.

In the Cawthron report, resource economist Jim Sinner said if councils acted promptly, the decline in water quality could be stopped. (Read on …)