We’ve won half the battle against Healthy Waters’ misguided plan to stop sewage overflows. Auckland Council has agreed to pipe separation, yet its Healthy Waters division still plans to build a giant $1.8m storage retention tunnel along the cliffline of the St Mary’s Bay park. This $44 million project is no longer needed as wastewater spills will largely be a thing of the past (only likely in rare and extreme weather events).
We believe such a tunnel would threaten the stability of the cliff , the future of the pohutukawas and is an outmoded approach to sewerage management.
With separation, stormwater can be handled in other less intrusive and less expensive ways.
The SMBA executive is simply a committee of nine volunteers. Huge chunks of time have already been spent on this complex and technical issue. We have achieved our goal of separation, but we still need to stop the tunnel. Once again we need our members to help us preserve the environment – for us and our grandchildren.
It’s time to put our hands in our pockets and donate to the SMBA Fighting Fund and help pay for the geotech, water experts and lawyers we need to help us stop a huge stormwater tunnel slashing through St Marys Bay.
We’ve already received a large sum from generous donors in our community, but expenses to date have swallowed three-quarters of that. Now we need more:
- First tranche to put expert evidence in front of Healthy Waters. We hope to persuade Healthy Waters, that a re-review of the tunnel project is appropriate.
- Second tranche. In the event that we are unsuccessful in seeking a re-review we will have to prepare expert evidence and engage a barrister to present our appeal in the Environment Court in July.
For more information see Separation Good, Tunnel bad and Background to Water Project
PLEASE DONATE :
St Marys Bay Association Fighting Fund Account:
12-3019-0628993-51
(Important: please include your name and street address as a reference)