NGATI
TUWHARETOA GEOTHERMAL
ASSETS

WORKING TO OBTAIN RESOURCE CONSENTS IN THE FACE OF HEAVY TECHNICAL OPPOSITION.

Ngati Tuwharetoa Geothermal Assets Limited (NTGA) engaged 4Sight in late 2011 to help acquire resource consents to take additional geothermal fluid from the Kawerau geothermal field, and then again for a second application to renew an existing consent to discharge residue geothermal fluid into the Tarawera River.

​

4Sight acted as the lead planning advisor for the take application, with key tasks being: 

​

• Working in conjunction with the client and legal advisors to scope the case and evidence requirements;

• Reviewing/integrating scientific and technical information and evidence (Council and Environment Court evidence);

• Preparing draft conditions of consent;

• Preparing and delivering expert planning evidence for the council hearing;

• Reviewing council decisions and third party appeals; and

• Preparing Environment Court evidence and negotiating conditions.

​

The resource consent was approved by the Environment Court after a short hearing, following agreement on the conditions and resolution of appeals.  

​

The discharge application was an end to end role, where we:

• Reviewed scientific and technical information associated with the Tarawera River;

• Identified critical gaps in the application and scoped project briefs to fill the gaps in a short period of time and oversaw the delivery of these assessments;

• Assisted with engagement with other tangata whenua and stakeholders;

• Prepared an application and assessment of environmental effects and planning assessment for the renewal in accordance with the RMA;

• Liaised with Bay of Plenty Regional Council staff and processing officers and submitters to resolve submissions on the notified application. 

​​

The application was granted without a hearing, following the resolution of all submissions.

​

Ian Mayhew, Technical Director - Planning & Policy, contributed significantly to these successful outcomes by ensuring the environmental effects of the project were considered in the context of the planning framework, which ultimately decides the appropriateness of granting the consent.

​

Throughout these projects, we demonstrated our ability to work to extremely tight deadlines and provide quality planning input and evidence, which incorporated highly technical and scientific evaluations to obtain resource consents.