Plans for the energy plant prompted the creation of a lobby group, Don't burn Waipa , which took to the streets in Te Awamutu to protest
Fonterra has raised concerns Global Contracting Solutions may not comply with council rules as part of its objection to a major a waste to energy plant in Waipā.
In its submission to an Environmental Protection Agency board of inquiry due to be heard in June, the dairy farmer owned co-operative authorised agent Mark Chrisp raised the compliance history of the applicant’s parent company Global Metal Solutions Limited.
“In 2022, Global Metal Solutions Limited was ordered to pay $134,900 to Hamilton City Council in respect of enforcement order proceedings… to deal with the impact of noise (including persistent breaches of the noise limits in the Hamilton City District Plan) from its metal recycling business,” Chrisp said.
Global Contracting Solutions wants to build the plant in Racecourse Rd Te Awamutu and the importance of Fonterra’s nearby 140-year-old manufacturing site on Alexandra Street, air quality and customer perception was at the top of the list of Fonterra’s objections.
“The Waipā District Plan reiterates the importance of the Te Awamutu site and the need to ensure compatible activities establish adjacent to the Te Awamutu site,” Chrisp said.
Waipā District Council has also objected to the plan.
“The food producing activities that are carried out on these sites are sensitive to other industrial activities.”
On the subject of air quality, Chrisp said as a food manufacturer, Fonterra had concerns regarding the implications of any activity in proximity to the Te Awamutu site that discharges emissions to air that could affect or compromise Fonterra’s existing or potentially future operations.
“These concerns include potential impacts on food safety, risk of contaminants entering the dairy manufacturing facilities and the subsequent response required by Fonterra to manage the elevated risk, the impact on Fonterra’s food safety certification, and the health and safety of staff and contractors who work at the Te Awamutu Site,” Chrisp said.
“As part of its overseas operations, Fonterra’s experience is that other waste to energy facilities have not established in close proximity to its food processing operations.”
Fonterra was also concerned with customer perception, as domestic and international customers were concerned with any perceived or real food safety risk associated with the combustion of waste products in such close proximity to its Te Awamutu site.
The submission aligned with comments made by Waipā district mayor Susan O’Regan who told councillors last year she was concerned with the impact the plant would have on agriculture locally and regionally if the consent was granted.
Adequacy of information was another concern, Chrisp said.
“Fonterra considers that the application is deficient in information as to how the ongoing activities at the application site are to be managed.
For example, for an application of this nature, it is surprising that a comprehensive suite of proposed consent conditions and draft management plans have not been prepared in support of the application, given that ongoing management will be required to maintain air emissions as has been modelled in the application.
This lack of information provides no confidence to Fonterra as to how operations will be managed on an ongoing basis, should resource consent be granted.
Without details of how ongoing effects will be managed, it is difficult to determine how it could be concluded that effects will be “no more than minor.”
Fonterra was also concerned with flooding, land use compatibility, alignment with the Waikato Regional Policy Statement, the district plan’s specialised dairy industrial overlay status.
