Environment Court to make final decision on Glenavy waste-to-energy plant proposal

The final decision on whether to build a controversial waste-to-energy plant at Glenavy, in South Canterbury, will fall to the Environment Court.

The Waimate District Council and Environment Canterbury asked Environment Minister David Parker to “call in” the application by South Island Resource Recovery Limited (SIRRL) in June, saying the proposal was a matter of “national significance”.

Their requests were eventually followed by SIRRL, the company behind the $350 million proposal, also asking the minister to “call-in” the applications.

If Parker agreed to the “call-in” requests, Project Kea’s applications would be determined by either a board of inquiry or the Environment Court, instead of the regional or district council.

On Wednesday, ECan confirmed the minister had “called in” the process on August 31 and directed the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to take over the management of the applications, and the Environment Court to be the decisionmaker on the overall proposal.

ECan consents planning manager Aurora Grant and WDC’s regulatory and compliance group manager Jonts McKerrow in a joint statement said, they were “pleased” the minister had agreed the proposal was a “matter of national significance”.

“Both councils will now be talking to the EPA about how the matter proceeds from here until the public notification, including the timing of the public notification, how we will work with the Environment Court, and how the outstanding water permit is to be managed,” the joint statement said.

“While the EPA takes over the management of the consenting process, both councils will still have a role in processing the applications and providing technical and planning support.

“The public will still be able to make submissions, regardless of who processes the applications, as SIRRL has requested that the proposal be publicly notified.”

SIRRL had been approached for comment on the minister’s decision.

The next step of the process would see the EPA publicly notifying SIRRL’s applications, so the public could make submissions. The EPA would then pass on the applications and the submissions to the Environment Court for the final decision.

The EPA was not involved in the decisionmaking process.

The minister had also directed that public notification on the proposal occur without waiting for the lodgement of the outstanding water permit which SIRRL still needed to submit.

There was no statutory deadline for when the Environment Court had to make the decision on the proposal following the public notification.

Now that the applications had been “called in”, appeal rights from the final decision by the Environment Court were also limited to appeals to the High Court on questions of law only.