-farming business is to appeal a court decision which effectively shut it down.
The general site layout of the Uruti composting and vermiculture facility. Photo: Screenshot
A controversial composting and worm-farming business in Taranaki is to appeal an Environment Court decision denying it consents which effectively shut it down.
The Taranaki Regional Council declined consents in 2021 for Remediation New Zealand's Urutī operation, which had a long history of complaints about odour and illegal discharges from its operation.
Until the Environment Court finding it had been able to operate as normal, as it fought the decision to decline it consents through the courts.
Managing director Kerry O'Neill said the Environment Court decision left it unable to clean up the Urutī operation.
"The reason for the appeal [to the High Court] is that the decision left us completely without any jurisdiction to run the site. And so the intent of the appeal for us was to get an exit consent and some agreement from all the affected parties about how that would work.
"The appeal is not for us to start taking new product. We won't take any more product in. It's about our strategic exit from the site, and - as I think as I've said before - in an orderly and compliant manner."
O'Neill said the appeal would lead to conferences with the affected parties to work out a pathway for completing the composting of product on site and what to do with the worm farm.
"One of the issues we have up there is we have a major vermiculture site, and obviously at some stage we need to deal with that. We consider them as livestock. So those are issues we have to work through with the Taranaki Regional Council and any affected parties."
It would take up to eight months to process the composting product already on site, O'Neill said.
In his decision earlier this month, Judge Laurie Newhook said he was not convinced that discharges from Urutī would discontinue if consents were reinstated, and that the Haehanga Stream and Mimitangiatua River would continue to be adversely affected and the environment more generally.
He said there were significant gaps in the information Remediation NZ provided the court, which cast doubt on its ability to operate in an environmentally safe way.
One of the main issues at Urutī was a 20,000-tonne stockpile of oil and gas drilling mud, containing arsenic, hydrocarbons and chemical additives, some of it mixed with unauthorised treated-timber sawdust.
O'Neill thought it would be possible to treat the stockpile, otherwise known as Pad 3.
"Pad 3 isn't contaminated. There are pockets of it that have levels of arsenic that are above agricultural use levels.
"So we'll look at how you remediate those, as in some cases we'll need to blend it out. There will be some turning that needs to be done because there's hydrocarbon content in some of it. But in terms of the product that's there, it can be remediated."
He reiterated Remediation NZ was not challenging the intent of the Environment Court decision.
"We understand the ruling and we certainly want to get the message across that the appeal is not for us to restart, or to open the site up for business again. It's about getting an orderly compliant exit from the site."
Taranaki Regional Council, Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Mutunga and neighbours of the plant and other interested groups - captured under the Urutī Community Parties banner - faced down Remediation NZ in court.
Sarah Roberts. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
Energy Watch Taranaki spokesperson Sarah Roberts said they were devastated Remediation NZ was appealing to the High Court.
"Since the hearing in December 2023 there have been more than 10 non-compliant incidents reported at the site, with Taranaki Regional Council saying they are still investigating many of them. It is a worry what may happen while this company continues to operate."
She said Remediation NZ's notice of appeal appeared to be asking for it to be allowed to operate as normal.
"The notice of appeal from my reading of it doesn't say that they are going to just ask for an exit plan. It doesn't look like that at all.
"It appears that they want to have what they had originally asked for, and that they believe that the Environment Court has made the wrong decision."
Roberts believed the court made the right decision, and it was now up to Taranaki Regional Council to map out a way forward.
"My understanding is the ball is now back with the regional council because Remediation NZ can't operate, so it's at the discretion of the council as to what is, I guess, the process from this point onwards. We were hoping that the council would bring everyone back to the table on this."
Urenui and Districts Health Group chairperson Rodney Baker was gutted.
"Families who lived nearby have been complaining for many years about the odour and the effects on their health. The Environment Court findings were a victory for the local community who stood up and said 'enough is enough'.
"To know that the company can challenge again is devastating. They have been operating off expired resource consents since 2018."
North Taranaki Awa Protection Society spokesperson Richard McClutchie said the Uruti Community Parties were disappointed.
"We were thrilled when the court declined the consents renewal to continue composting in the Uruti Valley. We'll be applying for costs."