Brian Anderson The Western Front www.sunlive.co.nz

A company is seeking consent for a fish farming operation in Katikati. A number of professionals are submitting against the plan providing evidence that the documentation is deficient and not based on any solid local research. The project will interfere with residential growth, it is too close to existing activities, will only exacerbate the existing transport problems of the town and the output from the farm to the harbour will have significant damaging effect on flora, fauna and water quality in the harbour.

I agree with most of what they have to say, but I believe the most worrying aspect of the project, not covered in their submissions or the plan, is the lack of understanding of the water in the harbour and the harbour itself. I have seen samples of Uretara silt laden tap water with up to 5 per cent by volume of silt. Add the output of the even worse McKinney stream and the Uretara provides probably the most silt laden water in the harbour direct to the project intake. If the project works, 200 cubic metres of silt and water will be taken and returned to the harbour every hour and it is obvious no thought has been given to the impact of this 14th stream to the harbour. The documentation is incomplete and can't be approved in its present form.

The Katikati Community Board was supposed to discuss the project, but the discussion degenerated into a criticism of the people opposing the project for their ignorance in that aquaculture was an approved use in the Western Bay. Unfortunately, the board did not know that the district council had classified the project as an intensive land based farming project and is making decisions on the same criteria used for battery chicken farms. The regional council form only covered information on the effect on the marine life, so the documentation goes to great detail on how the water is to be cleaned before it is released back to the harbour. This project could join the growing list of cross boundary problems between councils. Nobody considered the harbour.

Before a recent regatta, after a small flood, it was discovered that the channel markers were 100m away from the channel. The channel moved. It moves all the time and 200 cubic metres per hour of water in at one spot and out again at another is going to hasten channel movement. This sand instability is the main argument against the engineering logic of the Waihi Beach sea wall. They should have asked the Waihi Beach Community Board.

We are assured that the water from the outlet will be disbursed and cleared by the tide. A few years ago a dairy company just off the same peninsula assured Katikati that its outlet was only opened at high tide to ensure a good clearance. To prove it, they put dye into the outlet and tracked it. The dye went back and forth with the tides between Katikati and Kauri Point for three weeks and every boat in the northern harbour was decorated with a purple water line.

Using optimistic sedimentation figures mentioned earlier for just tap water, there will be 10 cubic metres of silt to be cleared out of the water intake every hour. If it doesn't get removed at the point of entry it is going to try to make its silt laden way 1200m cross country to the farm. Well, the water might for a while but I can't see the silt being very cooperative.

The documentation for the project is a preliminary concept plan but indications from the community board are that it will be approved without any serious questions and we will have another half baked project in the Western Bay. The Katikati Town Centre Plan was adopted when it was only a concept plan. It is already proving far too expensive but we are told the council cannot go back on its original decision. Other projects can be named that have been adopted and, though the design and later costs have proved disastrous, the council never seems to take the blame for the initial decisions. If this fish farm project is allowed to go ahead, a local precedent will be set and there will be no justification to oppose further expansion or similar projects. This fish farm will never work in the way it is described in the documentation but it does highlight the way in which the public can be bulldozed by council into crazy projects.

There are other arguments relating to the operation of the fish farm, particularly on the Katikati peninsula and the council pushing for post harvest zone facilities and sewerage system on the peninsula is conveying a very negative message to any residential development in the area. The SmartGrowth forecasts are quoted whenever the council wants to push its own agenda but council is very quiet as it does everything it can to slow kill this residential development direction in Katikati.

No-one asked me, but I do have an answer. If the project is so good, I recommend that the fish farm be re-sited to an area with much cleaner sea water supply, much better infrastructure and transport convenience. Shift it to Omokoroa.