South Port New Zealand Limited

A resource consent hearing was held 12 & 13 April 2022.

Public notice is hereby given pursuant to S.95A of the Resource Management Act 1991 that the following application for resource consent has been received by Environment Southland.

The application (reference APP-20211362) is for the following activities at Bluff Harbour and Foveaux Strait off shore of Tiwai Peninsula:

South Port New Zealand Limited ("South Port") is applying to dredge and remove seabed materials to the following targeted depths as part of project ‘Kia Whakaū’:

• 9.7 m chart datum (CD) in the harbour entrance channel
• 10.7 m CD in the Island Harbour berth basins.
• 9.45 m CD in the swinging basin; and

The application is for the following resource consents to authorise proposed activities:

• Coastal Permit to dredge soft sediment from the swinging basin and from the Island Harbour berth basins 3, 4, 5, 6,7 and 8;
• Coastal Permit for the disturbance and removal of the seabed/rock through breaking, drilling, blasting and dredging of rock material from rock outcrops within the harbour entrance channel and from the margins of the channel; and
• Coastal Discharge Permit for the discharge of up to a maximum volume of 120,000m3 of soft sediment and 40,000m3 of rock is proposed to be deposited at two disposal sites located in Foveaux Strait offshore of Tiwai Peninsula. The soft sediment and the hard rock material is to be disposed seaward of Tiwai Peninsula.

South Port proposes to utilise existing consents (listed below) and supplement these with additional new permits associated with dredging soft sediment from the upper Bluff Harbour and drilling, blasting, breaking hard rock in the bed of the harbour and dredging/excavating that hard rock onto vessels. All dredged and excavated material will be deposited at two disposal sites located in Foveaux Strait offshore of Tiwai Peninsula.

South Port holds the following existing consents: (Note: This is for information purpose only and these existing consents are not part of the current process to be submitted on)

Existing consents:

• Deemed Coastal Permit under s.384(1)(c) of the RMA. This permit allows South Port to remove any blasted or fragmented rock that remains in the channel from the previous capital dredging campaigns in the 1970’s and 1980’s, up until its expiry on 30 September 2026.
• Coastal permit 201285-V2 that consents the maintenance dredging and deposition of a maximum of 20,000m3 of soft sediment per annum with an annual average volume of spoil not exceeding 12,000m3 over the term of the permit. The permit expires on 2 December 2037.

For the purpose of the consent application, South Port has referred to the sought consents, as “Capital Dredging” and all other existing consented works as “Maintenance Dredging”. The term of consents being sought is 10 years. The programme of physical works is 8 months, albeit 24 months from commencement has been sought to allow for any contingency. The South Port application outlines the potential to give effect to the Deemed Coastal Permit, the Maintenance Dredging Consent (Coastal Permit 201285-V2), and the sought consents to achieve the depths required. The sought consents seek permission to excavate to the targeted depths in case the work has to be carried out after the expiry of the Deemed Coastal Permit.

Purpose: Capital Dredging

Location: Part of the seabed within Bluff Harbour and Foveaux Strait south and east of Tiwai Point:

Legal Description of Property: Crown land comprising seabed.

Address for Service: Frank O’Boyle, South Port New Zealand Ltd, PO Box 1, Bluff 9842. foboyle@southport.co.nz

Full details of this application are also available for inspection at Environment Southland, corner of Price Street and North Road, Waikiwi, Invercargill during working hours (8.00 am to 5.00 pm). Enquiries may be directed to Hamish Peacock by phone to (03) 345 7116 or by email to Hamish.Peacock@pdp.co.nz.

Submissions closed on the above application at 5 pm 31 January 2022.