The woman behind a court win over the rights to dump sludge off Aotea/Great Barrier Island says she wants Waiheke residents to join her fight against similar plans in and around the Hauraki Gulf.
Kelly Klink, Ngāti Rehua Ngātiwai ki Aotea, took the EPA to the High Court last year in an appeal of its decision to grant dredging company Coastal Resources Limited consent to increase the amount of marine sludge it could dump off Aotea/Great Barrier Island from 50,000m3 to 250,000m3 per year.
The Society for the Protection of Aotea Community and Ecology Incorporated also applied for a judicial review of the EPA’s consent decision and the two cases were heard together in the High Court at Wellington on 22 and 23 July 2019 before Judge Helen Cull. Both Kelly Klink and the Society for the Protection of Aotea Community and Ecology were represented by lawyers Dr Valmaine Toki and Sue Grey.
Judge Cull released her judgment on 3 December quashing the consent and stating that “the appeal and the application for judicial review raised similar and overlapping grounds of errors of law and procedural unfairness”. • Erin Johnson
Full story in this week’s Gulf News… Out Now
