Mighty River Power—Turitea wind farm project Summary of Submissions April 2009 Project Name: Turitea wind farm— Summary of Submissions Date of this version: April 2009 Status of Report: Final This Report was prepared by: David Hill MA, MNZPI, Director Rebecca Scannell BRP (Hons), Grad NZPI, Consultant Emily Toh BPlan (Hons), Grad NZPI, Consultant Hill Young Cooper Ltd Hill Young Cooper Ltd PO Box 8092 PO Box 99847 The Terrace, Wellington Newmarket, Auckland p: 04 473 5310 p: 09 529 2684 f: 04 473 5307 f: 09 5204685 e: [email protected] e: [email protected] Summary of Submissions – Turitea Wind Farm Project 2 Hill Young Cooper Limited, April 2009 Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................4 1.1........The project..........................................................................................................................................4 1.2........Resource consents applied for ...........................................................................................................5 2 STATUS OF SUBMISSIONS........................................................................................................................7 2.1........Positions of submitters........................................................................................................................7 2.2........Hearing of submitters..........................................................................................................................8 2.3........Length of submissions ........................................................................................................................8 1 SUBMITTERS' LOCATIONS......................................................................................................................10 1.1........Submitters’ geographic location........................................................................................................10 2 REASONS FOR SUBMISSIONS................................................................................................................12 2.1........Category 1—Effects on the natural environment..............................................................................14 2.2........Category 2—Social and cultural effects............................................................................................16 2.3........Category 3 – Economic effects.........................................................................................................18 2.4........Category 4—Effects on amenity .......................................................................................................20 2.5........Category 5—Regulatory and strategic issues...................................................................................23 2.6........Category 6—Process issues.............................................................................................................25 2.7........Category 7—Other............................................................................................................................27 3 DECISIONS SOUGHT ................................................................................................................................28 3.1........Decisions requested .........................................................................................................................28 3.2........Conditions requested and specific issues to be mitigated ................................................................28 ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS REPORT.........................................................................................................30 APPENDIX 1: LIST OF SUBMISSIONS................................................................................................................31 APPENDIX 2: SUBMITTERS’ POSITION ON INDIVIDUAL APPLICATIONS .....................................................46 APPENDIX 3: SUMMARY OF SUBMISSIONS ON EFFECTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT...................................48 APPENDIX 4: SUMMARY OF SUBMISSIONS ON SOCIAL AND CULTURAL EFFECTS.................................61 APPENDIX 5: SUMMARY OF SUBMISSIONS ON ECONOMIC EFFECTS ........................................................77 APPENDIX 6: SUMMARY OF SUBMISSIONS ON EFFECTS ON AMENITY .....................................................85 APPENDIX 7: SUMMARY OF SUBMISSIONS ON REGULATORY AND STRATEGIC ISSUES .....................104 APPENDIX 8: SUMMARY OF SUBMISSIONS ON PROCESS ISSUES............................................................112 APPENDIX 9: SUMMARY OF SUBMISSIONS ON OTHER MATTERS ............................................................118 APPENDIX 10: CONDITIONS SOUGHT BY SUBMITTERS / SPECIFIC MATTERS TO BE MITIGATED .......121 Summary of Submissions – Turitea Wind Farm Project 3 Hill Young Cooper Limited, April 2009 1 Introduction 1.1 THE PROJECT Mighty River Power (MRP) are proposing to construct, maintain and operate a wind farm in the Turitea Reserve and adjoining farmland near Palmerston North. The proposal includes up to 122 wind turbines. The wind farm would cover both public and private land located within the jurisdiction of the Manawatu-Wanganui Region, Palmerston North City and Tararua District. The proposed Turitea wind farm would be located along an approximately 14 kilometre stretch of the Tararua Ranges, approximately 10 kilometres southeast of the Palmerston North city centre and approximately 11 kilometres west of Pahiatua. The proposal includes: • 127 potential turbine zones; 62 within the Turitea Reserve, 65 on adjacent private properties; • up to 122 wind turbines; • maximum turbine height of 125m; up to 80m hub height, up to 45m blade length • three blades per turbine; • two internal substations; and • overhead transmission lines; 6.1km within wind farm, 5.2km from wind farm to Linton Substation (national grid). Hon. Nick Smith called in the Turitea proposal on 18 December 2008, under section 141B of the Resource Management Act 1991 (the RMA). This means that the decision on the proposal will be made by a Board of Inquiry instead of the relevant Councils. The Board of Inquiry was also appointed by the Minister on 18 December 2008. The Minister stated his reasons for calling in the proposal as: 1. The proposal affects, or is likely to affect, or is relevant to, New Zealand’s international obligations to the global environment; 2. The proposal affects, or is likely to affect, more than one region or district; 3. The proposal will contribute to the achievement of the national target of 90% of electricity generation from renewable energy sources by 2025; 4. The proposal will have national benefits deriving from the use and development of renewable energy in accordance with section 7(j) of the RMA. The resource consent applications for the proposal were publicly notified by the Minister on 24 January 2009 and submissions were called for. The submission period closed at 5pm on Monday, 23 February 2009. The Minister received 702 submissions on MRP’s proposal. In accordance with the RMA, these submissions were referred to the Board of Inquiry. Forty three of these were late submissions Summary of Submissions – Turitea Wind Farm Project 4 Hill Young Cooper Limited, April 2009 received after the deadline, and six were non-complying submissions which were only sent to MRP and not the Ministry for the Environment. All late and non-complying submissions were accepted by the Minister. This document provides a summary of the submissions received on MRP’s Turitea wind farm proposal. Full copies of all submissions are available on the Ministry for the Environment’s website (at www.mfe.govt.nz/rma/call-in-turitea/submissions/index.html) as PDF files. A draft version of this document was sent to all submitters for comment before this final version was released. 1.2 RESOURCE CONSENTS APPLIED FOR Manawatu- Wanganui (Horizons) Regional Council MRP applied for the following resource consents from the Manawatu-Wanganui (Horizons) Regional Council: Land Use Consents: • 104553: for vegetation clearance and land disturbance in rare or threatened habitats, near streams and on highly erodible land throughout the general wind farm site; and • 104554: for the construction of a double culvert in an un-named tributary of the Kahuterawa Stream as shown on the attached map. Discharge Permits: • 104555: for the discharge of dust to air from the concrete batching plants to be located as generally shown on the attached map; • 104556: for the discharge of dust to air from the mobile crushing plant throughout the general wind farm site; • 104557: for the discharge of wastewater from two operations and maintenance facilities to land to be located as generally shown on the attached map; • 104558: for the discharge of stormwater from substations to land to be located as generally shown on the attached map; • 104559: for the discharge of cleanfill to land in the form of spoil disposal sites throughout the wind farm site; and • 104560: for the discharge of stormwater from roads and turbine platforms, and other areas to land. Palmerston North City Council MRP applied for the following resource consent from the Palmerston North City Council: Land Use Consent (reference RC0068): • to establish and operate a wind farm in the areas within the Palmerston North City jurisdiction as generally shown on the attached map; Summary of Submissions – Turitea Wind Farm Project 5 Hill