TE NUPEPA O TE TAIRAWHITI FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2021 HOME-DELIVERED $1.90, RETAIL $2.20 PAGE 3 DUMPERS BLOCKBUSTER COSTING CODE SWITCH MULTIPLE TRADE WASTE CHARITIES THOUSANDS ON CARDS BYLAW BREACHES PAGE 26 PAGE 4 FAILED TO ‘MISSED BEYOND WORDS’ PROTECT WORKER Judge imposes health and safety undertaking, $100,000 reparation STEVEDORING company ISO Limited and fine in the usual manner would be has been convicted and ordered to insufficient to mark the offending. undertake significant health and safety Judge Philip Recordon agreed with improvements in relation to the death Ms Longdill that the company should of a Gisborne employee Shannon Brooke be convicted but accepted the company’s Rangihuna-Kemp. position on the COEU. It must also pay her family $100,000. There were cases where a fine was Ms Rangihuna-Kemp, 29, an ISO Ltd appropriate but this was not one of them, stevedore worker at Eastland Port, died he said. there from crush injuries after she was The company had not tried to hide hit by a log that fell from a trailer load from responsibility, accountability, or she was about to scan in a “tally lane” deny it was culpable. He preferred as just before 9am on October 8, 2018. the company did, to see its money put A Worksafe investigation found towards improving its health and safety numerous routine hazards in the tallying — which would benefit workers industry- process and that ISO Ltd already knew wide — rather than disappear into the about the hazard of logs potentially public coffers. falling from trailers, but had failed to ISO Limited operates in 14 New take steps to alleviate risks and protect Zealand ports and, according to its A BUBBLY young women who loved her family and life was how Shannon its workers. website, employs about 1000 workers. Rangihuna-Kemp (pictured) was described by whanau in victim impact The company subsequently pleaded Judge Recordon said the COEU was statements read out in Gisborne District Court yesterday. Ms Rangihuna-Kemp, guilty to a charge of exposing an not a soft option and a process where a stevedore worker, died from crush injuries after being struck by a log that fell individual to risk of harm or illness. the company would be spending twice from a trailer load at Eastland Port on October 8, 2018. Ms Rangihuna-Kemp’s The Court Ordered Enforceable as much as they would have had he father, Damon Kemp, spoke at the court sentencing of ISO Limited on a charge Undertaking (COEU) is an alternative to imposed a fine, the starting point for of exposing an individual to risk of harm or illness. “Once a heart is broken it conventional sentencing, such as a fine, which he agreed with Worksafe should be can’t be fixed. You’ve just got to live with that, it can’t be put back together,” which became available under the 2015 $800,000. STORY ON PAGE 4 Health and Safety at Work Act. Agreed reductions would have he said. Picture supplied At sentencing in Gisborne District diminished the fine actually imposed to Court yesterday, the company’s lawyers $400,000. Edwin Boshier and Rob Coltman Also at issue in yesterday’s sentencing between $58,000 and $68,000, and ISO the court for approval and regular submitted a COEU was an appropriate hearing was the matter of reparation to Ltd — which submitted $20,000 was monitoring. penalty and the company should be be paid by the company for emotional appropriate if payments it had already Worksafe, as the industry regulator, discharged without conviction. harm to Ms Rangihuna-Kemp’s whanau. made to the family were taken into will scrutinise the work and can But Worksafe prosecutor Anna Longdill The $100,000 ordered by the judge was account. prosecute for failure to act or implement strongly opposed both submissions, significantly more than that contended The terms of the COEU are yet to the agreed proposal. saying anything other than a conviction by Worksafe, which argued for a figure be established and must be put before CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 EMBRACE ENROL TE REO AND NOW! TIKANGA MĀORI STUDIES eit.ac.nz | 34817-11 GISBORNE RUATORIA WAIROA Local News ...... 1-5 Business ............11 Racing .......... 17-18 Television ...........23 Births & Deaths ...4 Opinion ..............12 Literature ...........19 Sport ............ 24-28 National ...6-7, 10, 16 World............ 13-15 Classifieds ... 20-22 Weather .............27 9 771170 043005 TOMORROW > 2 NEWS The Gisborne Herald • Friday, January 29, 2021 FLOOD PROTECTION by Jack Marshall To collect and move that amount of soil, huge tractors A MULTIMILLION- pull trailors the size of a Tokyo DOLLAR stopbank upgrading apartment with a blade on the project along the Waipaoa bottom, or “scoops” as they are River to protect the region known in the business. from flooding continues. The machines pick up dirt People crossing bridges along from between the stopbank and the Waipaoa River at this time the river. Operators then drive of the year may look below to the top of the stopbank, and wonder why the council deposit and compact the dirt is spending tens of millions to then loop back to get more dirt, protect the city from the trickle and continue the process over below. and over again. But those in the community Sixty-four kilometres of who remember the devastation stopbank is being upgraded of the Cyclone Bola flooding over 11 years, protecting in 1988 know how dangerous 10,000 hectares of fertile rising waters can be. floodplain. “The existing stopbank is The original stopbanks being raised and widened to were built from1953 to 1967 MAN WITH A PLAN: Gisborne District Council senior project engineer Joss provide for climate change following a severe flood in Ruifrok on site as tractors and trailers move tonnes of soil into place at the effects and to improve flood 1948. Waiapoa River Flood Control Scheme stopbank upgrade. Picture by Liam Clayton resilience,” senior project Once the upgrade is engineer Joss Ruifrok said of completed the banks will be the upgrade to the Waipaoa one metre higher on average River Flood Control Scheme and significantly wider. being done by Earthwork Approximately 8km of Solutions. stopbank has been upgraded The improvements are since construction started in designed to cater for a 100- February 2019. year rain event, accounting The council aims to complete for climate change out to 2090 another 10km by the end of based on predictions of an summer. average temperature increase The project is due for of 2.1 degrees and sea level rise completion in 2031. of 0.67 metres. In August last year the The upgrade to the council was awarded $7.5 stopbank on the eastern side million of funding from the of the Waipaoa River involves Provincial Development Unit to significant excavation, with accelerate the project delivery. project workers expecting The estimated cost of the to use over 1.5 million cubic total upgrade is between $32 A WALL OF EARTH: Ben Holden Fencing getting the Waipaoa River stopbank and metres of soil on the banks. million and $35 million. plain below ready for farmers to graze animals. Below tractors pull huge ‘scoops’ which collect the dirt used to build up the stopbank. Pictures by Liam Clayton LOOKING AHEAD Get your FOCUS ON THE LAND • A Rabobank report points to Gisborne Herald a profi table year ahead for the agricultural sector amid home-delivered global turbulence • Prices and comment from OUR PEOPLE, today’s weekly sheep sale at Matawhero — 2000 head on OUR FLAVOURS, offer, plus price details from the cattle fair OUR PLACE • Investment in innovative technology for farmers by the PGF proves its worth TOMORROW TOMORROW The Gisborne Herald, 64 Gladstone Road, P.O. Box 1143, Gisborne • Phone (06) 869 0600 • Fax (Editorial) (06) 869 0643 (Advertising) (06) 869 0644 Editor: Jeremy Muir • Chief Reporter: Andrew Ashton • Circulation: Cara Haines • Sports: Jack Malcolm/John Gillies To fi nd out more call 869 0620 e-mail: [email protected] • [email protected] • [email protected] • web site: www.gisborneherald.co.nz The Gisborne Herald • Friday, January 29, 2021 NEWS 3 CLEANING UP ITS ACT Preventive measures by Cedenco after multiple trade waste bylaw breaches by Wynsley Wrigley IMPROVEMENTS IN PLACE: Cedenco Gisborne CEDENCO’S Gisborne plant is working general manager Carla McCulloch says the company with Gisborne District Council “in an has been “working hard to improve the quality of educational approach” to prevent further discharge water from the Innes Street factory”. breaches of trade waste bylaw consents Gisborne District Council says the company committed after committing 14 breaches between 14 breaches of trade waste bylaw consents over a October 2019 and September 2020. 12-month period. Herald file picture The council confirmed to The Gisborne Herald that Cedenco was non-compliant 14 times on various trade waste consent conditions, including higher-than- maximum pH levels, suspended solids and discharging coloured substances. Cedenco was one of at least 270 companies across the country identified by Radio New Zealand (RNZ) from local body data as breaching their trade waste conditions. None of the companies have been fined because of a legal loophole. Gisborne District Council environmental services and protection director Helen Montgomery said the council was clear on expectations, and working closely with Cedenco to ensure improvements to their processes. “There have been no consent breaches under the Resource Management Act.” During the 2020 processing season, Cedenco formed a project team and put in place a number of measures to prevent breaches from occurring. Those measures included an external review of wastewater systems, clarification improvements to remove solids, modifications to chemical and lime dosing, and the installation of a buffer tank system to moderate water flow through the equipment.