More than 1000 Pakiri seabed sand mining protesters are expected at an event in Northland's Mangawhai Heads next month ahead of resource consent application hearings for Auckland-based company McCallum Bros to harvest the resource from nearby waters.
Pakiri seabed sand mining protesters voice their opposition as a McCallum Bros' sand mining ship moves by. Photo: Northern Advocate (Local Democracy Reporting)
The 10 July event on Mangawhai Heads Beach is expected to be one of Northland's biggest protests, drawing Northlanders and Aucklanders living along the 20-kilometre-long Pakiri-Mangawhai coastline and beyond.
Save Our Sands (SOS) spokesperson Ken Rayward said opposition to the mining was growing and the protest event would provide an opportunity for the community to publicly express its views.
Greenpeace campaigner James Hita, who headed the years-long campaign to stop Taranaki seabed mining for iron and titanium magnate will address those present. The Court of Appeal in 2020 refused Trans-Tasman Resources permission to mine millions of tonnes of ironsands.
Kaipara Mayor Dr Jason Smith will also be speaking.
"I am looking forward to hearing from the community and working on the next steps in fighting the sand mining," Smith said.
McCallum Bros wants to harvest more than eight million tonnes of sand over 35 years from 8.2 square kilometres off the sea floor off Pakiri and Te Arai. McCallum Bros started in 1904 and its past sand mining has also been at Waipu and Mangawhai.
Rayward said 400 people had turned out to a similar event last year. More than three times that number of people were expected at the July event. Community opposition would be expressed in a giant 60-metre high wording SOS on the sand.
SOS has about 30,000 members across a coalition of groups including Greenpeace, Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society and Friends of Pakiri. It delivered a 15,000-signature petition in opposition to the offshore sand mining to Auckland Council in April.
Save our Sands (SOS) protestors deliver their 15,000 signature petition against Pakiri sand mining to Auckland Council in April. Photo: LDR / Northern Advocate
Eleven days of resource consent renewal application hearings for McCallum Bros to continue harvesting seabed sand in near-shore and newly in the mid-shore zones near the beach start on 27 July.
These are happening as the company also heads to the Environment Court to challenge Auckland Council hearing commissioners' May decision not to allow mining in the off-shore zone.
Rayward said opposition to the seabed sand mining had for the first time now reached the point where the three councils connected with its operation and potential impacts - Auckland Council, Kaipara District Council and Northland Regional Council - had all expressed their concerns over the activity.
Pakiri sea floor sand has played a major role in Auckland's building scene. It is the concrete industry's sand source preference for major infrastructure projects, high-rise construction, and marine structures.
The Pakiri-Mangawhai coastline is a 20-kilometre sweep of east coast surf beach ending at Mangawhai sandspit in the north. The sandspit provides a critical barrier for Mangawhai township, New Zealand's fastest-growing coastal settlement, and the Pacific Ocean.
Eighty percent of this coastline is in Auckland Council, 20 percent in Northland. Mining takes place in the sea off the middle section of the coastline.
The Northland-Auckland land border runs out into the sea in a north-easterly direction from roughly the base of Mangawhai spit. This means the spit, a critical barrier between Northland's Mangawhai and the Pacific Ocean, is in the spotlight when it comes to the mining's potential impacts.
File photo: Pakiri Beach sand dunes Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Seabed sand mining is allowed only off the Auckland end of the beach. This area is under the jurisdiction of Auckland Council.
The beach's northern end is under the council jurisdiction of Northland Regional Council (NRC) and Kaipara District Council (KDC).
Northland Regional Council (NRC)'s submission on the near-shore and mid-shore resource consent applications raised concern regarding the lack of research that had been done about Pakiri sand mining's potential impacts north of the Auckland/Northland border. It was important any potential cross-boundary effects were addressed.
NRC said it was important Mangawhai spit was protected from adverse effects.
The barrier spit was classed as outstanding in terms of landscape, natural character and natural features. These high-ranking values were a matter of national importance under the Resource Management Act.
Kaipara District Council has also submitted against the company's near-shore and mid-shore resource consent application. It said Mangawhai Harbour, Mangawhai estuary, and Mangawhai Heads were at risk of exposure to the coastal elements should the spit's protection disappear or decrease.
"KDC opposes the two applications for sand extraction within the Mangawhai-Pakiri embayment ... Opposition is in full and pertains to actual or perceived adverse effects on the Mangawhai sandspit morphology, wildlife habitat of nationally critical or vulnerable bird species, as well as on the local Mangawhai community," the submission said.
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ on Air