OHAAKI A POWER STATION ON MAORI LAND Evelyn Stokes Te Matahauariki Institute University of Waikato 2003 ii List of Contents 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................1 2. Geothermal Exploration 1966-76 ................................................................4 3. The Environmental Impact Report 1977 ....................................................13 4. The Environmental Impact Audit 1978 .....................................................17 5. MWD Attempts to Purchase the Land .......................................................23 6. The Ministerial Requirement for a Designation ........................................41 7. Appointment of the Ngati Tahu Tribal Trust 1980 ....................................57 8. Negotiations Toward a Lease 1981-82 ......................................................69 9. The Ohaaki Liaison Committee .................................................................85 10. Marae Development and the ‘Amenity Grant’ ..........................................97 11. The Ngawha .............................................................................................113 12. Geothermal Policy Development 1980s ..................................................129 13. The Resource Management Act 1991 ......................................................141 14. Retrospect ................................................................................................155 15. References ................................................................................................160 16. Appendices: 1. A Note on the Name Ohaaki ..........................................163 2. Submission to the Commission for the Environment ....164 3. Statement at Hearing of Objections to Ministerial Requirement ...................................................................172 iii iv List of Figures 1. Taupo Volcanic Zone ...................................................................................4 2. Proposed Ohaaki Geothermal Power Project 1978 ......................................7 3. Drilling a Geothermal Well .........................................................................9 4. Proposed Ohaaki Power Station .................................................................24 5. Land to be Designated ...............................................................................25 6. Ngati Tahu Lands .......................................................................................56 7. Te Ohaaki Papakainga c.1930 ....................................................................58 8. Tahorakuri A1 Blocks Land Tenure 1980 .................................................61 9. Flow Diagram of Ohaaki Power Station ....................................................86 10. Comparative Height of Ohaaki Cooling Tower .........................................89 11. Te Ohaaki Papakainga 1983 ....................................................................100 12. Geothermal Features at Ohaaki ................................................................115 Acknowledgements My thanks and appreciation go to Lois MacMillan, University Secretarial Services, who typed the text, and Max Oulton, Department of Geography, University of Waikato, who prepared the maps and photographs. Acknowledgment is also due to Electricorp for the photographs on pp. 84, 128, 152, 153 and 154 of the opening of the dining hall at Te Ohaaki Marae and the Ohaaki power station by the Governor General, Sir Paul Reeves on 31 October 1989. All other photographs were taken by Evelyn Stokes. v Tahumatua, the ancestral meeting house of Ngati Tahu at Te Ohaaki Marae vi 1. Introduction This paper is about a geothermal power station called Ohaaki (see Appendix 1), constructed over the period 1982-1989 on Maori land close by Te Ohaaki Marae and the ancestral papakainga of Ngati Tahu. This is a personal account of the impact of this project on Ngati Tahu rather than a history of the construction of the power station. My initial involvement began early in 1977 when I was asked by the Power Development Division of the New Zealand Electricity Department (NZED) to comment on likely social and economic impacts of the proposed geothermal power station in their preparation of an Environmental Impact Report. In 1980 I was appointed by the Maori Land Court as one of the trustees of Te Ohaaki Marae and the lands affected by the power project. I held this position until I resigned in 1992. I was, therefore, party to all the negotiations with Crown representatives over the Maori lands involved and the development of Te Ohaaki Marae. How I became so involved with the Ngati Tahu community is part of the story that will unfold in the following pages. In 1977 I was an outsider, with no ancestral ties or other connections with Ngati Tahu. I knew little about this community then but I was interested in the social and economic impact of large development projects. At the University of Waikato where I was employed in the Geography Department I was already working with colleagues Robert Mahuta, John Rangihau and Jim Ritchie on the impacts of the Huntly Power Station and contributing to the Huntly Monitoring Project, based at the university. During a period of study leave in North America in 1976 I met and talked with a range of people involved in impact assessment from Alaska to Ontario to Arizona, an experience which broadened my perspectives. My time in Fairbanks, Alaska was particularly illuminating (Stokes 1976). I had also reported on impacts at Huntly (Stokes 1977 and 1978). I was also developing a number of local contacts in this new field of environmental impact assessment which was now being applied to public works in New Zealand. The 1970s was a time of developing awareness and policy-making in the area of resource management in New Zealand. It was also a time of developing awareness of Maori land issues too. This was a significant part of the developing scenario at Ohaaki in the late 1970s. My own position is perhaps best spelled out in one letter, from correspondence I had with the Commissioner for the Environment, W. D. Wendelken, in mid 1977: One of the issues involving environmental impact and decision-making which I am particularly concerned about is the conflict of “national interest” versus the welfare of local communities on whom a major project is imposed. While in Canada I talked to several people about the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. Some of the Fairbanks people I met had given evidence to the enquiry conducted by Mr Justice Berger last year. I have now just received a copy of the Berger Commission Report. It is a very impressive document, not just in terms of format, high standard of illustrations and quality of writing. It also contains the best statement I have seen on this problem of “national interest” expressed by the dominant European urban industrial culture, weighed against the potential destruction of viable indigenous cultures and economies. There was considerable concern on this issue in Alaska and I feel we have a parallel situation in New Zealand. For example, the pressure to preserve indigenous forests is largely an urban middle class environmental awareness thing, and few of these people really understand the implications for local people of tying up large areas in National Parks or other preservation systems. This has affected Tuhoe people in the Urewera; the Nga Manawa Incorporation in the Kaimai-Mamaku area 1 have had to put up with a great deal of pressure from environmentalists because these Maori groups are trying to get some income from their lands by planting pine trees. In the past they have also been castigated for leaving their lands idle and unproductive. They can’t win, but I think there are a lot of South Island Pakeha West Coast people whose livelihood depends on timber milling who would understand their attitudes. I have had arguments with my ecology-minded university colleagues on this. But my attitude is based on childhood experience; my uncles were timber millers in the Kaimai, and many of my school holidays were spent at the Whakamarama mill settlement (it disappeared when the mill closed in 1946). It was from the mill people that we learned to appreciate, understand and respect the bush. But it was also a means of livelihood for these people, Maori and Pakeha, and they also understood the need for long-term conservation and management of slow- growing indigenous trees. I might also add that most of the Kaimai-Mamaku has been milled at least once since the 1880s. I also think that far more destruction has been perpetrated by feral goats in the Kaimai in the last 20 years than by mill people in the last 80-90 years. I also believe pine trees are here to stay, for they regenerate themselves without being planted by people, and we need their timber. I enclose a copy of a paper I have done on the Maori Community at Waahi Marae [see Stokes 1977] in which I have tried to suggest some of the social and economic impacts of the Huntly Power Station, and put them in historical and cultural context. This is a good example of locating a power station with no regard whatsoever for existing community patterns, and no real attempt to talk to the local people and listen to their grievances. After four years of construction some senior NZED men came to the marae for the first time when Duncan McIntyre [Minister of Maori Affairs] visited earlier this year to receive submissions from the local people. Now