Environmental Impacts, Resource Management and Wahi Tapu and Portable Taonga
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Taihape Inquiry District: Environmental Impacts, Resource Management and Wahi Tapu and Portable Taonga A Report Commissioned by the Crown Forestry Rentals Trust for the Waitangi Tribunal’s Taihape District Inquiry Professor Michael Belgrave David Belgrave Dr Chris Anderson Dr Jonathan Procter Erana Hokopaura Watkins Dr Grant Young Sharon Togher December, 2012 1 2 Table of Contents THE TAIHAPE ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING REPORT ............................................................ 8 Method ........................................................................................................................................................ 12 PERSONNEL .................................................................................................................... 15 PROJECT TEAM ..................................................................................................................................................... 15 THE CLAIMS .................................................................................................................... 18 ECONOMIC ....................................................................................................................................................... 20 HEALTH AND SPIRITUAL .......................................................................................................................................... 21 POLITICAL ............................................................................................................................................................ 21 MANA WAHINE .................................................................................................................................................... 22 THE GEOGRAPHY AND TRANSFORMATION OF INLAND PATEA ........................................ 23 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................................... 23 GEOLOGY ............................................................................................................................................................ 25 Geomorphology/Terraces ........................................................................................................................... 27 SOILS .................................................................................................................................................................. 28 Soils of the flood plains and terraces lands ................................................................................................. 28 Soils of the steep land and related flat rolling and moderately steep to steep land ................................... 28 Soils of the northern uplands and dissected mountain lands ..................................................................... 30 Soil Quality Indicators ................................................................................................................................. 30 NEW ZEALAND LAND RESOURCE INVENTORY AND LAND COVER DATABASE ...................................................................... 34 FLOODING IN THE RANGITIKEI AND TAIHAPE INQUIRY DISTRICT ...................................................................................... 41 Scoping brief issues ..................................................................................................................................... 42 CONTAMINATION OF SOIL IN THE TAIHAPE INQUIRY DISTRICT ........................................ 43 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................................... 43 The importance of soil ................................................................................................................................. 43 Sources of contamination............................................................................................................................ 44 The Legal framework for contamination ..................................................................................................... 45 Classification of land as contaminated ....................................................................................................... 47 Reporting on contaminated sites ................................................................................................................ 51 HAIL sites in the Taihape Inquiry District ..................................................................................................... 53 Specific detail on potentially contaminated HAIL-listed locations in the Inquiry District ............................ 55 Landfills in the Inquiry District ..................................................................................................................... 56 Contamination at defence works ................................................................................................................ 57 Heavy metals ............................................................................................................................................... 57 Military explosives ....................................................................................................................................... 58 Wood preservatives: Antisapstain fungicides and timber preservatives .................................................... 58 The process of release of regional-council managed HAIL information ...................................................... 61 Guideline values for soil and water contamination ..................................................................................... 62 Chemical contamination of primary production environments .................................................................. 63 Primary production environments............................................................................................................... 64 Contaminants of Concern ............................................................................................................................ 64 Exposure risk and environmental cost......................................................................................................... 67 Intractable agricultural chemicals; POPs; organochlorines ........................................................................ 69 Agrichemicals and Persistent Organic Pollutants in the Rangitikei District ................................................ 72 Pesticide use in the Rangitikei prior to the 1980s ....................................................................................... 75 Changes in pesticide use between the 1980s and 1990s ............................................................................ 76 Specific use of pesticides as a sheep dip: Sheep dip sites ............................................................................ 77 3 Contamination hot spots ............................................................................................................................. 78 Risk for groundwater contamination .......................................................................................................... 80 Specific contaminants at sheep dip sites: .................................................................................................... 82 Other insecticides/treatments..................................................................................................................... 84 Historic sheep dipping sites in the Taihape Inquiry District ......................................................................... 85 LAND USE AND AGRICULTURE IN THE TAIHAPE INQUIRY DISTRICT .................................. 87 Otumore ...................................................................................................................................................... 91 Golden age of pastoral farming in Taihape................................................................................................. 94 Changes in resource management in the 1970s ......................................................................................... 97 Scoping report issues covered ..................................................................................................................... 98 AORANGI-AWARUA LOGGING PROPOSALS ................................................................... 101 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................... 101 THE 1974 LOGGING APPLICATION ......................................................................................................................... 103 THE APPLICATION OF REEVES CONTRACTORS LIMITED ................................................................................................ 105 THE CATCHMENT BOARD DECISION AND APPEAL ...................................................................................................... 108 HIGH COURT ACTION AND DOC ATTEMPTS AT SETTLEMENT ....................................................................................... 113 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................................... 115 Scoping report issues covered 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