Environmental objections to fossil fuel extraction are mounting, with the Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society and Greenpeace separately lodging appeals against coal-mining and oil exploration consents.

The Forest & Bird appeal against resource consents issued to the first opencast coal mine in Bathurst Resources’s Buller Coal Project was widely anticipated, and brings to three the number of appeals now received against the Escarpment mine project.

Unexpected was the announcement by Greenpeace that it will seek a judicial review of the oil exploration licences granted to the Brazilian oil and gas giant, Petrobras, to seek hydrocarbons in the Raukumara Basin in waters off East Cape, beyond the 12 mile nautical limit in New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone. (Read on …)

Nearly 100 Otago resource consents involving effluent and odour discharge and water takes have been found to be non-compliant, with potential effects on the environment.

The Otago Regional Council’s compliance team carried out 810 audits of 718 activities and reviewed 2335 consent conditions for performance monitoring relating to 697 consents in the 12 months to June.

The audits revealed two areas of concern – water meter installation and discharge and water takes.

Environmental services manager Martin King said in a report to the council’s regulatory committee the level of compliance found with discharge and water take consents was “of concern”.

Of the 358 consents monitored, only 38.3% fully complied with their consent conditions. (Read on …)

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 …)

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 …)

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 …)

The Environment Court has fined two Northland dairy farmers $51,000 between them for discharging effluent into waterways despite repeated warnings and notices to upgrade their systems.

Anthony Joseph Schluter of Pekerau, about 14km northeast of Kaitaia, and James Dodunski, of JKD Farms, appeared for sentencing in an Environment Court in Whangarei yesterday.

JKD Farms was charged with two counts of discharging farm dairy effluent into separate tributaries and Schluter faced a single charge.

The convictions and penalties come after the latest survey by the Northland Regional Council, which laid the charges, showed only 43 per cent of dairy farms in the region fully complied with the effluent discharge conditions of their resource consent. (Read on …)