What is laughable about this is the council’s pledge to make the waters swimmable! It is DCs & Horizons that pollute them in the first place with their consents to industry & farming, that they don’t even police correctly. See the links here as witness to that as the pollution of waterways plays out in the Horowhenua district. Same scenario, but not 1080. Nevertheless blatant pollution that is flatly denied by those responsible. Two DC Crs and local iwi Ngati Whakatere have vehemently opposed and exposed this corruption, one Cr stating that the DC is a “top drawer polluter”. We saw recently also the polluting of Auckland’s public water supply with Council’s blessing.
This is playing out also in many NZ regions (see our LG Watch pages). It is mere lip service. Read their site spin then see what they actually do (or don’t would be more appropriate). So now they’re going to clean up the rivers by adding dead 1080 infused carcasses? This is about Agenda 21. And note who will have to pay out the millions, farmers & property owners, doubtless like everything else they try to shut down, it will become an unmanageable burden & drive them off the land. See our Agenda 21/2030 pages for more info on that, particularly, watch Anne Bressington’s video there, a former Australian politician who caught on to what is really going on. This plan is global.
Check out also our pages on 1080 and other chemical pollutants.
The article of interest here is from tasmaniantimes.com, by Nigel Wayne – TV Wild.
Waikato Regional Council Permits Poisoning of Waterways to Kill Deer …
A massive collaboration process has taken place over the last three years to clean up the Waikato, and Waipa river catchments in the Waikato Region of New Zealand. To make them “swimmable”.
Waikato Regional Council has championed the project from the get-go, back in 2013. The idea is to place tighter restrictions on private land use, and reduce pollution to the waterways by monitoring both direct and indirect pollutant discharges. The targeted contaminants are Nutrients (N & P), sediments, and E Coli.
It has been suggested that farmers and property owners will have to fork out over 500 million dollars to implement the policies, over time. Stakeholders involved with the round-table meetings have reportedly included Fonterra, Dairy NZ, Beef & Lamb, energy companies, and many more. The dream is big and it’s bold, but does it go far enough?
The following video released by New Zealand film makers Clyde and Steve Graf appears to provide strong evidence that 1080 poison baits (a deadly pesticide made in America) are cast across forests and directly into forests streams in the Waikato Region. And to top it off, it is implied that the Council that is leading the Healthy Rivers – Wai Ora project, is the same Council that writes the permits that allow the aerial poison discharges to take place, and directly into water – running water.
The video also highlights contradictions within the Ministry for Primary Industries. MPI, as it’s known in New Zealand, is shown making a public plea on TV One News for all New Zealanders to stand up against animal cruelty, and to inform MPI if they should encounter it.
Like our FB page &/or follow us for updates. We are about exposing the corruption and lies of particularly corporations whose only allegiance is to their shareholders & not the environment.
Expose them by sharing this information! And be thoughtful about who you vote for next Local Body election time!
Fairly obvious who is in bed with whom here … it’s becoming such a regular occurrence with Local Government. Corporate control, corporations cooperating with corporations, duping the people that they are democracies. Democracy is a long gone mythical illusion. Check out our Local Govt Watch pages for more corruption. It’s rife now. EnvirowatchRangitikei
8:36 am on 15 July 2016
Benedict Collins, Political Reporter –@rnzbenedict
Taranaki Regional Council spent $85,000 unsuccessfully contesting RNZ’s coverage of its oil industry waste farms – known as landfarms.
In 2013 RNZ began investigating the controversial practice of landfarming – where oil industry waste, including fracking waste, was being spread on farms in Taranaki.
Within hours of the first story airing, the council announced it was no longer allowing fracking waste to be disposed of on landfarms.
However, the council laid several complaints with the Broadcasting Standards Authority contesting many aspects of RNZ’s coverage of landfarming.
Documents obtained under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act reveal the council incurred $85,000 in legal costs to challenge the stories.
The council argued the coverage amounted to “misinformation” in “attack-style journalism” which was “of grave concern and… no service to the public”.
For more related info & links, search categories for further articles (at left of any page).
Please also consider liking our FB page &/or following our blog, and do spread the word on all the untruths we have been told! Use the share buttons! Speak up … your silence becomes consent.
Straight blatant geoengineering over the Rangitikei District in NZ. Been going on for decades. They modify your weather without your consent. They create droughts, storms, floods. They have weaponized the weather. For further info visit geoengineering pages athttps://envirowatchrangitikei.wordpre…
CONTENTS OF THE TRAILS:
Aluminum Oxide Particles, Arsenic, Bacilli and Molds, Barium Salts, Barium Titanates, Cadmium, Calcium, Chromium, Desiccated Human Red Blood Cells, Ethylene Dibromide, Enterobacter Cloacal, Enterobacteriaceae, Human white Blood Cells-A (restrictor enzyme used in research labs to snip and combine DNA), Lead, Mercury, Methyl Aluminum, Mold Spores, Mycoplasma, Nano-Aluminum-Coated Fiberglass, Nitrogen Trifluoride, Known as CHAFF), Nickel, Polymer Fibers, Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Pseudomonas Florescens, Radioactive Cesium, Radio Active Thorium, Selenium, Serratia Marcscens, Sharp Titanium Shards, Silver, Streptomyces, Stronthium, Sub-Micron Particles, (Containing Live Biological Matter), Unidentified Bacteria, Uranium, Yellow Fungal Mycotoxins http://www.stopsprayingcalifornia.com…
Captured & published by the author at EnvirowatchRangitikei. As far as I know it’s gone on there for three years, probably much longer given there’s evidence elsewhere of the same. Visit our Geoengineering pages on the site for further info on geoengineering/chemtrails.
John Key’s legacy spelled out in scathing terms by Green Party MP Gareth Hughes on February 11th this year (2016). “Hungry kids … up, inequality … up, pollution … up, electricity costs … up, housing costs … up, foreign ownership … up, debt … up, corruption … up … “. His legacy if you like, epitomizes everything Agenda 21 is about.
Yagasaki Katsuma’s article (below) is by far the most complete, well-researched and truthful account of radiation exposure to the Japanese as a result of the Fukushima meltdowns that I have read thus far. I highly recommend that you read this entire article. – MP
” Yagasaki Katsuma, emeritus professor of Ryukyu University, has been constantly sounding the alarm about the problem of internal exposure related to nuclear weapons testing and nuclear electricity generation. Since the explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP), he has drawn on his expertise to conduct field research, and to support those who evacuated to Okinawa. We asked him to reflect on the five years since the accident at Fukushima Daiichi, and to lay out the issues that lie ahead.
Heading to the blast site 12 days post-explosion
On March 17, 2011, a friend who lived in Fukushima City contacted me. “They’re reporting an onslaught…
To all the deniers of climatemodification/chemtrails/geoengineering, known by all three names – what’s going on here? Here is how your air, soil and water are being polluted daily with toxic chemicals. This is why our trees are dying.
By the way, about the term ‘chemtrail’ … “Contrary to rumors of ‘conspiracy theory’, the [US] Department of Defense first published ‘Chemtrails’ in 1990 as the title to a chemistry course for new pilots attending the esteemed US Air Force Academy”. (SOURCE)
RANGITIKEI ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH WATCH
A disturbing prediction from statistics here. If you are a thinking person, you must do the research and see what has been happening here. Surely in an era of unsurpassed technology and expertise this should not be? Clearly you have an internet connection to be reading this, so research the topic particularly in relation to vaccinations. And keep an open mind. A researcher simply looks at all the facts and makes an informed decision, and there is plenty of information out there to sift through. Don’t just be lazy and accept the status quo. Believe me that’s no longer a safe way of proceeding through life. Here in this article the finger is pointed at, among other things, glyphosate. EnvirowatchRangitikei
The finger is pointed particularly at glyphosate … here it is sprayed on the Rangitikei’s Marton Primary School walkway right by the school, and no warnings of spraying given. The Rangitikei District Council is adamant that glyphosate is perfectly harmless.
This gloomy prediction was made at a GMO conference in December of 2014 by MIT senior scientist Stephanie Seneff, PhD. Originally a computer and artificial intelligence researcher, Seneff has shifted over the past several years to biology, with a focus on the impact of environmental toxins on our rapidly declining health.
Aluminum toxicity has been an issue with Dr. Senef, so vaccines are part of her equation to autism. But possibly just as much is the pervasive abundance of glyphosate. She and her research partner Anthony Samsel researched the relationship of glyphosate based herbicides (GBH) such as Roundup to the epidemic of many modern diseases, including Celiac, Alzheimer’s and autism.
Glyphosate is present in unusually high quantities in the breast milk of American mothers, way beyond the allowable levels of glyphosate in water. Urine testing shows Americans have ten times the glyphosate accumulation as Europeans.
Recent news in February 2016 highlighted the state of Shannon’s waste water treatment plant. This has all been denied (the pollution that is) by the Horowhenua District Council. The footage and photos don’t lie however. To see the original videos posted see links below. We now have a FB page devoted solely to Horowhenua issues in the interests of disseminating the info and supporting those who are standing up to make changes to the status quo. Note, to see all ten videos, go to the Youtube icon on the bottom right of the video and watch on Youtube. You will see there plenty more footage of Horowhenua and Manawatu pollution by what appears to be partially treated sewage and farm effluent.
Cr Michael Feyen is one of those and has stated today on Facebook:
“As a Horowhenua District Councillor I want to make it very clear that Central Government, Horizons Regional Council and Horowhenua District Council are most definitely serial polluters of our water-ways and vast improvements in the governance are necessary if we are to leave anything for future generations. Please post and share and the word will get there.”
“In early December 2014 Ngati Whakatere had called me out as a Horowhenua District Councillor to look at their concerns of pollution to the waterways from the Shannon sewage treatment plant.
The following sequence of films clips was taken by myself, Horowhenua District Cr Michael Feyen – of waste water being pumped from the Shannon sewage treatment ponds into the Otauru Stream and into the Manawatu River. These clips back up Councillor Campbell’s (link below) recent film of the same type of disgusting practices of pollution to our waterways by HDC with Horizons Regional Council’s blessing. Both organizations are serial polluters. Please take the time to watch all the videos. When called, Horizons did not send anybody out to investigate. Obviously nothing has changed and no one was held accountable.
Chinese plastic clothes baskets are the filters used by Horizons and HDC & their contractor”.
See our other Local Govt Watch pages for more info & links, &/or search categories for further related articles (at left of any page).
Please also consider liking our FB page &/or following our blog (right of any page) and do spread the word on all the untruths we have been told! Use the share buttons!
Here are some disturbing revelations from decades ago. Chemicals have become a very large part of our lives and here we had a Doctor warning us way back in the 1950s of the intent of those who introduced them, and of their inherent dangers. We currently hear daily from researchers on that topic.
On our ‘Chemicals’ page on our site there is an interesting (old) article from Mother Jones called ‘The Corporate Crime of the Century’ . It describes the dumping of banned chemicals in Third World countries, for convenience, going back even to the 1970s. Once banned in the US the shrewd manufacturers of the chemicals then shipped the ingredients separately abroad to be made up in the destination country, with ne’er a word of course about the final product’s toxicity or status back home.
And here in this article we have Dr Clymer foretelling that this onslaught of chemicals was for a very sinister purpose. No small wonder he was vilified and denounced. The article covers some of the chemicals he addressed, and one of particular interest of course, was fluoride. A very informative read.
EnvirowatchRangitikei
“Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible.” Dr R Clymer
Dr. R. Swinburne Clymer was in many ways a man ahead of his time, and most certainly controversial. He was attacked by the medical establishment for connecting diet with disease and mental health in his 1917 book Dietetics. Dr. Clymer received his medical degree in 1902 from the College of Medicine and Surgery in Chicago and began practicing Osteopathy. Accusations of fraud surround Dr. Clymer’s career, including this 1923 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association which claims that, “Our records fail to show that this man was ever regularly graduated by any reputable medical college.” What Clymer had to say more than likely had something to do with the denouncement that he received from the medical establishment.
Dr Clymer’s book warning people of what was to come
Though Dr. Clymer may be surrounded with controversy, his 1958 book Your Health and Sanity in the Age of Treason exposes toxic food additives and fluoride with documentation – the majority of which are mainstream scientific studies – that can be verified many times over. What makes this book unique is the fact that Dr. Clymer was one of the first to point out that statements by the elite indicated that these toxins were to be deliberately released “…for the mental deterioration and moral debasement of the mass…”
Quote from Dr Clymer on Fluoride:
“We are aware that the fluorides are extremely toxic substances, and evidence exists to show that even at the recommended level of one part per million of fluoride in drinking water, people in fluoridated communities have been harmed.
We know of reputable, independent medical authorities throughout the United States and in the local area who have found evidence of fluoride damage to persons living in fluoridated communities. These medical authorities disagree with the fluoride hypothesis, and they have raised grave questions with respect to the safety of the procedure for an entire population which includes the young, the old, the susceptible and the infirm as well as the healthy”.
” … during my time on council … I was placed under pressure to toe the line and deny there was a [pollution] problem” Former HDC Councillor Anne Hunt
Former Horowhenua District Councillor Anne Hunt, who is backing the claims made by both Councillors Campbell and Feyen (see links at bottom of page) regarding the HDC’s role in pollution of Horowhenua’s waterways, has revealed that on two occasions they as Councillors were given a clear message by Mayor Brendan Duffy that they were to “toe the line and deny pollution by the Council”. The first of those occasions concerning a 2008 visit by Green Party Co-Leader Russel Norman is addressed here, the second which relates to the pollution of Shannon’s waterways, will be covered in another post.
Mrs Hunt has previously stated on Maori Television in a documentary about the pollution of Lake Horowhenua that HDC is its “worst polluter” and she still stands by this statement (see video at 3.56 minutes).
Dr Russel Norman’s Visit in 2008
Mrs Hunt described an occasion in 2008 when Dr Russel Norman came to Levin to speak with HDC’s Mayor, CEO and representatives about the pollution of Lake Horowhenua by Levin’s nearby waste water treatment plant. At a Council workshop on the day prior, they were told, said Mrs Hunt, that TV3 was coming up to interview the CEO David Ward. Cr Leigh McMeeken suggested they should all stand around him as a show of support. She describes the workshop:
“We were all sitting around the council table, and Brendan [Mayor Duffy] asked each councillor individually to speak to this and voice their support [of the CEO’s stance]… finally coming around to glare at me. I felt most uncomfortable and managed to mumble a non-committal answer. But the message was clear that I was not to step out of line. The Mayor and every other councillor supported the staff position on this, and agreed that Dr Norman was simply political point scoring”.
Put simply, Mrs Hunt says they knew they were to deny that their Council was polluting the lake.
Dr Russel Norman standing by Lake Horowhenua on his visit to HDC in 2008 – he correctly concludes the lake was contaminated with E.coli [Photo Credit: Green Party]During his visit Dr Norman was given the opportunity to fly over the lake and take photographs. It was not until a couple of months later that he was proven right by Horizons official tests (3 Oct 08 Manawatu Standard) about the sewage pollution when samples showed high levels of E coli, confirming faecal contamination.
Aerial photograph by Dr Norman showed groundwater from earthworks at the plant was pouring into the lake and creating a plume of dirtier lake water
Dr Norman’s Conclusions on the Sewage Contamination
Dr Norman concluded there was absolutely no doubt sewage was seeping into the lake and said it was turning out to be one of NZ’s worst sewage disasters in years. Official tests found high levels of E.coli between council sewage ponds and Lake Horowhenua. He commented that the HDC had a history of resource consent breaches including a then recent court appearance regarding Shannon’s sewage ponds. Mayor Brendan Duffy and CEO David Ward he said, have constantly downplayed risks, with Mayor Duffy calling any critics of his waste disposal practices ‘ill-informed’. The council had given priority he said to a $10.4 mill council building over proper waste treatment.
The new Council building … “an edifice to stupidity” – Cr Michael Feyen
The Sewage Pollution of Lake Horowhenua was FACT
This has been an abbreviated revision of Dr Norman’s conclusions. Fuller coverage will be the subject of a later post. It serves here in its brevity to illustrate that in spite of HDC denials, the pollution of Lake Horowhenua by sewage was factual, as official tests later proved. And the point of this post being to endorse the actions of Mr Andrews (the 70 year old Shannon environmentalist who was recently assaulted at his home by intruders) and Crs Ross Campbell and Michael Feyen, in endeavouring to film what appears to be deliberate pollution by the HDC, bringing it to the notice of the public. A public that elected these representatives to manage their public resources, prudently and not negligently.
Particularly, it exposes, thanks to Mrs Hunt, the clearly unethical tactics employed by the HDC in coercing its Councillors to think and ‘vote’ a certain way.
You have a situation here where your Councillors that you vote for on election day, the people whom you are expecting to represent your views when important decisions are made at your local District Council … they are actually being told how to vote … and that is according to the directive of the CEO.
Is this democratic?
Clearly not.
What we have here it seems, is an illusion of democracy. Behind those closed doors Councillors are not permitted to represent you … their hands are tied. Clearly there have been three Councillors here who were willing to speak the truth … at great cost to themselves. For that I applaud them.
“When we tolerate what we know to be wrong–when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy, or too frightened–when we fail to speak up and speak out–we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice”. – Robert Francis Kennedy
Finally, bear in mind that your local District Councils are registered on Dun and Bradstreet’s website as companies. (Check this out for yourself). A company is:
“… anyformalbusinessentityforprofitwhichmay be a corporation, a partnership,association or individual proprietorship…” SOURCE
So we need to be asking ourselves, to whom do our Councils (that are really companies) owe their allegiance? To you the ratepayer/citizen? Or to corporate/company interests, given they exist ‘for profit’? Does this not explain a few anomalies?
On a final note, these courageous Councillors who have put their heads above the parapet and spoken truth deserve our thanks. Do consider emailing them in that regard, or leave a comment here. And the same goes for the local residents, in particular Mr Andrews, who have also stood up and been counted.
EnvirowatchRangitikei
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Here is a Horowhenua petition about the local landfill you may like to consider signing … all info contained herein, and click on the link at the end to take you to the petition site to sign. The petition was not created by EnvirowatchRangitikei, however we are advertising it on the campaign creator’s behalf.
TO: HOROWHENUA DISTRICT COUNCIL
Close the Levin Landfill as the uncontrollable toxic leachate has started to contaminate the Hokio stream.
Why is this important?
Horowhenua District Council is hell bent on keeping the Levin Landfill open despite the huge environmental and financial costs. HDC has admitted they cannot contain the landfill leachate that seeps into the Hokio Stream. Their approach is to change resource consent conditions so they can legally pollute the wider environment including the stream.
It begs the question why?
As a member of a community group who have been keeping an eye on the landfill operation for over 17 years I have come to the conclusion it’s all about politics, as nothing else makes sense.
About ten years ago Mayor Duffy campaigned that he was going to make half a million dollars per annum by importing Kapiti’s rubbish into the Levin Dump. They made a secret contract (they say this is commercially sensitive) with Midwest Disposals. Although they have been telling the public that all is well the truth is the landfill has been losing vast amounts of ratepayers money and is now over $4.5 million in debt.
The reason they are in debt is because the landfill is located in the worst spot imaginable, in permeable sand-country, near a stream and beach, upstream of a township, on shallow ground water and on sensitive ex Maori occupied land. Any of these points should have been a reason not obtain a resource consent but it was pushed through by Horizons Regional Council and HDC in 2002 without proper process which was later investigated by the Parliamentary Commission for the Environment who gave both councils a damming report. Unfortunately the culture hasn’t changed.
Because of the landfills location on sand country, millions of extra dollars has to be spent on trying to contain the toxic leachate which has proven to be impossible.
A five yearly review is now underway with Horizons imposing a new set of conditions. These conditions are being contested by HDC.
So we have the two councils fighting each other, wasting hundreds of thousands of our dollars, when it could have all be resolved if Horowhenua District Council would come clean and discuss the option of the alternative landfill at Bonny-Glen which is far more cost effective and environmentally efficient.
With enough people power we can get rid of this disgraceful polluting dump from our backyard and start to restore our once pristine environment so please sign the petition.
“HDC is a top drawer polluter. This is not the first time accurate film footage has been taken of wilful contamination of the Manawatu River … I took extensive film footage 14 months ago and was ridiculed at the time” Cr Michael Feyen
In recent posts we have highlighted the ongoing pollution of Horowhenua’s natural water resources (see posts here and here). Now another Councillor, Michael Feyen, has backed the claims of Councillor Ross Campbell about the Council’s role in this pollution, and says he made similar video footage to Cr Campbell’s 14 months ago for which he was ridiculed.
“… council’s take on the issue was misleading and full of half-truths” Cr Michael Feyen
Seventy year old Shannon resident John Andrews, who was with Cr Campbell recently while filming the sewage discharging into Stansell’s Creek, featured in news headlines shortly afterwards when he received a late night bashing by 3 to 4 men. There may or may not have been a connection between the two incidents, however, you can read the article and draw your own conclusions about that. The matter will still of course be under Police investigation.
Cr Feyen has been reported by the Herald as saying: the “council’s take on the Shannon issue was misleading and full of half-truths”. He himself has posted around 80 other videos on Youtube (watch these at the link) documenting the deliberate pollution of both Horowhenua and Manawatu waterways with both sewage and farm effluent. (The above video features pollution of the Manawatu).
The people mandated with protecting our environments, our District Councils and Horizons, who all adhere (on paper at least) to the goals of sustainable development, are in fact complicit in polluting them. This is happening both NZ and world wide.
“Two-thirds of more than 160 monitored river swimming spots in New Zealand have been deemed unsafe for a dip” NZ Herald 30/1/2015
And further food for thought … your local District Councils are registered on Dun and Bradstreet’s website as companies. (Check this out for yourself). A company is:
“… anyformalbusinessentityforprofitwhichmay be a corporation, a partnership,association or individual proprietorship…” SOURCE
So we need to be asking ourselves, to whom do our Councils (that are really companies) owe their allegiance? To you the ratepayer/citizen? Or to corporate/company interests, given they exist ‘for profit’?
Stand up people and make these folks accountable. Our clean water is almost gone. Few rivers are clean enough to swim in any more. Your silence is taken as acceptance of the status quo.
On a final note, these courageous Councillors who have put their heads above the parapet and spoken truth deserve our thanks. Do consider emailing them in that regard, or leave a comment here. And the same goes for the local residents, in particular Mr Andrews, who have also stood up and been counted.
EnvirowatchRangitikei
If you agree with this article please like our FB page and share – help us to expose lies and promote truth.
Further to our recent article on the Horowhenua District Councillor who alerted the public to the pollution of Shannon’s waterways by allegedly raw sewage, the Horowhenua District Council has served a trespass warrant on their own Cr Ross Campbell. This is the man who filmed the raw evidence (see footage below) of what appears to be equally raw sewage and toilet paper spewing into the Stansell Street creek at Shannon. (I can find no news links to the serving of a warrant – I saw it on Facebook and it has since been removed). Although the District Council is saying the video is a distortion of the facts Cr Campbell says the video speaks for itself and “he’s not changing his stance on the issue”. He had received a number of calls on the day from concerned locals who had seen the sewage discharging into water where children were swimming. A call to Horizons resulted in a post inspection comment that the HDC was abiding by their consent.
“It’s a joke really. This is absolutely shocking … the stench was horrible. This was straight sewage, no treatment, no nothing. It’s putting everyone at risk who uses the stream.”
Cr Ross Campbell
See the toilet paper for yourself. The HDC have claimed it has been put there deliberately by somebody. But what would that somebody have to gain from such actions? Definitely a lot of stress given this outcome, and who ever would pay them for exposing pollution? The claim doesn’t really hold water.
The trespass notice Horowhenua District Council has served on their own Councillor Ross Campbell
Above is a copy of the trespass warrant that was removed from Facebook. (I note other news links from the event are now no longer operative).
So why has the Horowhenua District Council served a trespass warrant on the Councillor who filmed the sewage? If they are so above board then what have they got to hide? Why are they not inviting the public to inspect for themselves and see that everything is good.
And why, as citizens of our ‘clean and green’ paradise, we need to ask, are Councils polluting and not protecting our environments …. according to their stated mantra of ‘sustainable development’? Consider, your local District Councils are registered on Dun and Bradstreet’s website as companies. (Check this out for yourself). A company is:
“… anyformalbusinessentityforprofitwhichmay be a corporation, a partnership,association or individualproprietorship…” SOURCE
We need to be asking ourselves, to whom do our Councils (that are really companies) owe their allegiance? To you the ratepayer/citizen? Or to corporate/company interests, given they exist ‘for profit’?
This kind of carry on is NOT sustainable!
On a final note, these courageous Councillors who have put their heads above the parapet and spoken truth deserve our thanks. Do consider emailing them in that regard, or leave a comment here. And the same goes for the local residents, in particular Mr Andrews, who have also stood up and been counted.
EnvirowatchRangitikei
If you agree with this article please like our FB page and share – help us to expose lies and promote truth.
John Andrews, environmentalist, says he was attacked on his own property [Photo: Maori TV]
“A 70-year-old man has been bashed in a late night attack at his home in Horowhenua. Staunch environmentalist John Andrews says he may have been a target as he had highlighted pollution issues from the Shannon Sewage Treatment Plant into the Otāuru River.” (Maori Television)
Mr Andrews said he had been attacked from behind on his own property, kicked and bashed in the head and other parts of his body. He said he saw three men in the attack and a possible fourth as well. When this incident first appeared on Facebook he was reported as saying that the parting comment of one of his attackers were words to the effect of “Lord Duffy said ‘hello'”. (Here is a link to Stuff’s report on the attack).
Although the Facebook post made it clear Mr Andrews was just relaying what was said, and not saying he connected the incident with Levin’s Mayor Brendan Duffy, ensuing comments in the media have understandably, correctly or otherwise, suggested there is a link. Any connection with the incident however is denied by the Mayor.
“We had had an altercation with the Regional Council earlier in the day out there and I don’t know if there’s any connection and I would only be speculating if there was, but this fight has been going on for years,” John Andrews. (by Maori Television)
Mr Andrews had been at the Mangaore Stream earlier in the day with Horowhenua District Councillor Ross Campbell, when Cr Campbell filmed footage of the treatment ponds and the discharging of raw sewage into the steam. Cr Andrews had then talked with a worker at the plant, who agreed to turn the pump off.
Subsequently, footage of sewage and toilet paper in the water was posted on social media, footage that the HDC claims is a distortion of facts, even suggesting the toilet paper was put there by somebody. (View footage here). (There were other videos posted also which may or may not be related but do indicate the concern that exists with this pollution).
The Pollution of Lake Horowhenua
Lake Horowhenua, its water now so toxic it could kill, polluted for decades by discharge of local sewage and farm effluent
This is not the first time this Council has come under the spotlight for pollution of its natural water resources, or that people who have highlighted pollution have incurred a violent backlash. As indicated, the fight over pollution has been going on with the HDC for years. This claim is borne out in the history of Lake Horowhenua, a natural resource that is owned by the Muaupoko Iwi. This once pristine lake, dubbed by the Listener as the ‘lake of shame’, had been transformed from a valuable source of income and kai … into a literal toilet bowl. Raw sewage had been pumped into it for two decades starting in the 1950s (tantamount to emptying a septic tank’s contents onto your vegetable garden) and although it ceased in the 1980s, the lake has continued to be polluted to this day by effluent from surrounding dairy farming, by some sewage and from local agricultural activity. The price tag to clean up the pollution and realize the dream of having swimmers cross the lake last ANZAC day (2015) was estimated by Horizons to be $2.886 million. It is one of the top ten most polluted lakes in New Zealand and testing has revealed just a small glassful has the potential to kill a small child. A former HDC Councilor Anne Hunt said when in office, that one of the worst polluters of the lake was the HDC (see video at 3.56 minutes). The Crown has admitted this:
“The Crown has conceded it failed to protect Lake Horowhenua from pollution, breached the Treaty of Waitangi on multiple occassions and left the Muaupoko iwi virtually landless…”(Waitangi Tribunal Hearing 2015)
The lake’s guardian, Phil Taueki, Muaupoko, explains:
“We agreed to share it with the public but there are certain rules we ask them to respect to protect the lake … we have to hold those who are accountable for allowing our most prized taonga to be turned into the town’s toilet … “
The following video explains the lake’s history and the fight by its owners for decades to keep it clean. See also the Listener’s article here.
Lack of Respect for Sacred Sites & Blatant Disregard for the Resource Management Act 1991
Local Maori in Shannon, Ngati Whakatere, have recently protested (late 2015) about the Council’s lack of respect for sacred Maori sites with regard to their excavations. (See video BELOW). The Resource Management Act 1991 clearly requires consultation with local Iwi around any intentions to excavate, however the Council simply is not listening.
In the first video about Lake Horowhenua (at 6 minutes), Mayor Duffy (interviewed by Karley Hemopo of Marae TV) clearly displays his blatant disrespect both for Maori values and for the Resource Management Act which the HDC (that he represents) is legally required to observe and adhere to. He states when asked what the objections by Maori regarding excavation by the Council were (in the case of the Queen Street storm drain) he states:
“Oh God knows … it’ll be around … it’s a burial site or … a burial site? … I don’t think so…”
Mayor Duffy
The Resource Management Act, dating from 1991, lists “matters of national importance” that are to be protected in any decision:
Matters of national importance (The Resource Management Act 1991)
“In achieving the purpose of this Act, all persons exercising functions and powers under it, in relation to managing the use, development, and protection of natural and physical resources, shall recognise and provide for the following matters of national importance: …..
(e) the relationship of Maori and their culture and traditions with their ancestral lands, water, sites, waahi tapu, and other taonga:
(f) the protection of historic heritage from inappropriate subdivision, use, and development:
(g) the protection of protected customary rights…” (SOURCE: RMA)
Soon after Mayor Duffy’s statement in the video (at 6.23 minutes) an interview with a land owner and lake trustee Vivienne Taueki reveals she approached HDC about their own objections even before construction began in 2004 yet Council states they have no record of such objections.
The Ongoing Lip Service Councils Pay to ‘Preserving & Enhancing Natural and Cultural Resources’ and ‘Sustainable Development’
For a few years now we’ve been hearing that term ‘sustainable development’. It’s often accompanied by the term ‘smart’, implying clever and is related to goal setting and achievement. You can read the full definition of these two terms here however below is a small quote:
Smart growth values long-range, regional considerations of sustainability over a short-term focus. Its sustainable development goals are to achieve a unique sense of community and place; expand the range of transportation, employment, and housing choices; equitably distribute the costs and benefits of development; preserve and enhance natural andcultural resources; and promote public health. SOURCE
You will see these terms displayed on our Regional and District Council websites, and on our Horizons websites, those authorities that are entrusted with the care of our environment. The Sustainable Land Use Initiative (SLUI) for instance “will not only protect and conserve our valuable hill country soil resources, but also address water quality issues and improve downstream flood protection.”
So, with the rhetoric that exists in all of these policy statements relating to the oft quoted Long Term plans, we should have very clean water at least. Yes?
But no. NZ wide we have waterways that are unsafe to swim in any more. The Manawatu River has earned the dubious ‘honour’ of being the most polluted river in the Southern Hemisphere. See here and here, short video clips about the pollution of that river by a HDC Cr Michael Feyen. Clearly the Horowhenua waterways are no exception.
So, ironically, the authorities mandated with protecting our natural environment and resources seem to be failing miserably in their ‘performance objectives’ (you know, ‘sustainable, smart’ and all of that?) Here in the Rangitikei we have the same issue going on with the pollution of our own Tutaenui Stream where our District Council (RDC) has a long legacy of non compliance with consents and no in-stream biota survey (assessing the aquatic life of the stream) for over a decade, a report that’s required three yearly. (I asked our Mayor Andy Watson twelve months ago when there would next be one … he advised me to email the Council on that … no reply yet). And the fudging of the amounts of leachate dumped into our WWTP (waste water treatment plant) by a very considerable amount (like up to 12 tanker loads per day not the stated 2-3 per 1-2 days). These authorities appear to act more favourably towards corporate interests than those of the people who elected them.
The Alleged ‘Unhealthy Relationship’ that Exists between HDC and Police
Consider also the unhealthy relationship cited by Phil Taueki that’s alleged to exist between the HDC’s Mayor and the Police. In the Lake Horowhenua video above, Mr Taueki, when arrested(see at 1.07 minutes) for trying to enforce protection of the lake, was refused permission by Police to lock up his premises, and returned the next day to find his property and car trashed. Where is the due process of the law and justice in these matters when Mr Taueki attempts to highlight matters of pollution? Additionally, Mr Taueki says that 75% of the charges against him over the past two years in this respect have been dropped before they ever got to Court.
To offer you food for thought on all of that, consider this; your local District Councils are registered on Dun and Bradstreet’s website as companies. (Check this out for yourself). A company is:
“… anyformalbusinessentityforprofitwhichmay be a corporation, a partnership,association or individualproprietorship…” SOURCE
So we need to be asking ourselves, to whom do our Councils (that are really companies) owe their allegiance? To you the ratepayer/citizen? Or to corporate/company interests, given they exist ‘for profit’?
On a final note, these courageous Councillors who have put their heads above the parapet and spoken truth deserve our thanks. Do consider emailing them in that regard, or leave a comment here. And the same goes for the local residents, in particular Mr Andrews, who have also stood up and been counted.
EnvirowatchRangitikei
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In May last year (2015) a local person (thank you!) sent me images they’d captured over the Bulls area of skies that were clearly geoengineered. I believe the above video that I captured over Marton in May also is of the same spraying event. To educate yourself on geoengineering or climate modification please visit our Geoengineering page. Listen to the testimonies of whistleblowers, watch the documentaries and read the data by people who have studied this practice that has continued now for several decades right around the planet. For a well referenced documentation of its development go to climateviewer.com‘s timeline. There are further videos recording these trails over the Rangitikei on the NZ Geoengineering page. See also how our air, water and soils are polluted and poisoned by this practice. Although now acknowledged by governments as a scientific practice that ‘may combate global warming’ (they say) – that geoengineering is happening now is currently flatly denied by governments of the world. Below is a list of the contents of independently tested trails in California. New Zealanders are finding high concentrations of Aluminum, Barium and Strontium in their rainwater.
Contents of the trails
“Open air Chemtrail spraying operations are now live in California (all 50 states and all NATO countries). Independent analysis of chemtrail fallout has identified many toxic chemicals including”;
Aluminum Oxide Particles, Arsenic, Bacilli and Molds, Barium Salts, Barium Titanates, Cadmium, Calcium, Chromium, Desiccated Human Red Blood Cells, Ethylene Dibromide, Enterobacter Cloacal, Enterobacteriaceae, Human white Blood Cells-A (restrictor enzyme used in research labs to snip and combine DNA), Lead, Mercury, Methyl Aluminum, Mold Spores, Mycoplasma, Nano-Aluminum-Coated Fiberglass, Nitrogen Trifluoride, Known as CHAFF), Nickel, Polymer Fibers, Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Pseudomonas Florescens, Radioactive Cesium, Radio Active Thorium, Selenium, Serratia Marcscens, Sharp Titanium Shards, Silver, Streptomyces, Stronthium, Sub-Micron Particles, (Containing Live Biological Matter), Unidentified Bacteria, Uranium, Yellow Fungal Mycotoxins
More information on Fukushima … the disaster that contrary to mainstream media reports never went away. It continually gets worse… (article, with thanks, from healthandhearth.org)
2016 is here. And with a vengeance.
“Vengeance is mine” allegedly sayeth the lord.
You could say the same thing about Mother Nature.
Because when any creature defies the Laws of Nature, the grace and good-will of Mother Nature issues a courtesy-warning, and our insticts and intellect can pick it up loud and clear: it’s called “danger.”
And when that danger is recognized, all manner of evasive or problem-solving tactics and strategies can be devised and deployed.
But when danger is not recognized, and warnings ignored,the outcome is “written” so to speak, almost “predestined” by God and/or Nature itself:
Death.
Mother Natures final notice of terminal error.
For almost 5 years now, according to Japanese and other scientists, 300 metric tons of intensely radioactive plutonium water has been pouring relentlessly into the pacific ocean, from the THREE nuclear power plants STILL BURNING at Fukushima. In other words, to date, 529,500…
Here is ‘Hard to Swallow’, a doco from the Youtube channel ‘Collective Evolution’. “A short documentary that looks at the initial theories behind the effectiveness of fluoride and where it originated. It goes on to show the lack of science behind the use of Fluoride and reveals Fluoride as a toxic waste substance that is being pumped into our drinking water. The documentary will conclude by delivering the “hard to swallow truth” of fluoride which pertains to why it is actually used.”
Note:Keep an open mind when researching fluoride: what we have learned is so ingrained and even your dentist will tell you fluoride is beneficial … check the independent research however … it is telling us something quite different and will challenge your paradigms.
Check out EnvirowatchRangitikei’sFluoride page for further links
“Mr. Barrie Trower, a British physicist who was a microwave weapons expert and who worked for the Royal Navy and the British Secret Service, talks about the health effects of WiFi and other forms of microwave radiation.
Mr. Trower came out of retirement because he was concerned that the microwave frequencies and intensities to which children are exposed in schools are similar to those used for microwave weapons.”
When a Royal Navy Microwave weapons expert tells us Wifi is killing us, we really ought to be taking heed of the warning. It’s the same old story though … because the threat is invisible we think it’s not happening. Educate yourself and listen to Prof Trower’s advice. Another excellent watch on the topic is Take Back Your Power. You will learn there of one woman’s shocking discovery after the terrible loss of her adult son to brain cancer. He had lived in a University hostel placed right near a cell phone mast, and there had in fact been multiple similar deaths to cancer by young people living previously in the same room as her son. These threats are very real. You will find more info and links on our EMF and Smart Meter pages.
On ‘The Dangers of Willful Blindness’ …. “Gayla Benefield was just doing her job — until she uncovered an awful secret about her hometown that meant its mortality rate was 80 times higher than anywhere else in the U.S.
But when she tried to tell people about it, she learned an even more shocking truth: People didn’t want to know. In a talk that’s part history lesson, part call-to-action, Margaret Heffernan demonstrates the danger of “willful blindness” and praises ordinary people like Benefield who are willing to speak up. (Filmed at TEDxDanubia.)” TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more. Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at http://www.ted.com/translate
Here’s an illustration of what one person’s research into hidden environmental hazards can turn up. You would think people would be pleased to be warned however not so. In this instance nobody wanted to hear why their town’s death rate was 80 times higher than anywhere else in the US. I encounter similar disbelief when I relate the hidden dangers of Smart Meters and other RF radiation risks, and chemicals in our food, water and air. Too often people only begin to take this all seriously when bad health strikes. We need to remember again, corporations are about profits for their shareholders and these come first. Any environmental risks are only disclosed (if at all) in very fine print which few read. Corporations are not devoted to the good health of their buying customers … we the people need to fulfill that mandate. Be warned.
An article in the Manawatu Standard reports on a Waitangi Tribunal Hearing that began in Levin today, 5th October 2015
A visit to the Horowhenua district earlier this year led me to discover the shocking history of this lake, in particular, the way the owners, the Muaupoko Iwi have been treated throughout the whole process. (Lake Horowhenua is near Levin). Download and read the whole history of the Lake and how it was incrementally taken over, a long but essential read to understand the background of this story:
“In the beginning.. Not content with the land they lived on, it wasn’t long before the settlers of Levin coveted the lake as well. Lake Horowhenua belongs to Mua-Upoko who had been forced to watch helplessly as ancestral lands, placed in ordinary property titles, disappeared through scurrilous means. A Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry had ferreted out fraudulent activities, not only by those purporting to represent the tribe but by Central Government itself…” Read more here.
The polluted Lake Horowhenua
Stories like this one are not rare in our indigenous histories … they are just generally unreported in mainstream media. It is also the typical scenario where the costs of preventing environmental damage are ignored in favour of short term profits. The lake has seen decades of pollution (1950s-70s) in the form of human sewage that completely polluted both the food sources and the livelihood of Muaupoko and caused many to leave. Then there has been the surrounding farming and agricultural runoff. Muaupoko who have endeavoured to keep the lake clean have been vilified and maligned as being not the true owners. The official history in fact, also borne out by today’s article in the Standard, reveals their ownership has been whittled away from them incrementally by convoluted land laws and processes, and “left with “a mere sliver” of the 50,000 acres it once had”, again typical in our histories. The lake’s kaitiaki, Phil Taueki has been involved in an ongoing uphill battle in that respect with locals, Council and Police in his efforts to stop ongoing pollution. He featured recently on Kaitiaki Wars (available on demand) and also in this news item from Marae TV on the history and on the Horowhenua District Council’s stance. Taueki states that the lake, “… a prized taonga” has been “turned into the town’s toilet…”
The lake is now so polluted(video)* it was dubbed in a 2014 Listener article as the ‘Lake of shame’. It is not safe to drink or to swim in. A National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research scientist reported in 2012 that the “water in Lake Horowhenua is so toxic that it could kill a small child.” There were plans this year (2015) for swimmers to commemorate ANZAC by crossing the lake (once the training venue for Lord General Freyberg before WWI) however the cost to clean it up was $2.886 million, clearly not a priority. The non priority status of this issue is reflected in the tight time frame given it by the Crown for this hearing, a fact highlighted by Land Claim lawyer Leo Watson.
EnvirowatchRangitikei
Crown Concedes it Failed to Protect Lake Horowhenua from Pollution
By NICHOLAS MCBRIDE “The Crown has conceded it failed to protect Lake Horowhenua from pollution, breached the Treaty of Waitangi on multiple occasions and left the Muaupoko iwi virtually landless.
The Waitangi Tribunal hearing opened at the Horowhenua Events Centre in Levin on Monday, with 22 claims looking at Lake Horowhenua, Hokio Stream and the Horowhenua land block.
“We believe this will be one of the most profound hearings we will have in this district,” Judge Caren Fox said on the opening morning of the tribunal.
In its written submission, released before the hearing, the Crown acknowledged that the Muaupoko iwi had “well-founded grievances”.
It breached the Treaty of Waitangi and this allowed Lake Horowhenua to become polluted…
In the opening submissions for claimants, lawyer Leo Watson, speaking on the Hokio A land claim and Horowhenua Lake claim, said the Crown had perpetrated wrongs against Muaupoko, causing “profound generational impacts”….
the Crown had not acted in good faith, not talked with Muaupoko and had failed to protect the lake.
It had also been left with “a mere sliver” of the 50,000 acres it once had.”
The Marton Waste Water Treatment Plant is up for a multi million dollar upgrade as reported recently in the Wanganui Chronicle. It was noted in the article (and locals of course know this) that “…a contributor to the current plant’s failure was leachate (landfill run-off), which was trucked to the treatment plant from Bonny Glen landfill..”
According to RDC’s own report of December 2014“Marton’s WWTP is configured as a domestic/municipal wastewater treatment based upon pond technology. It is not well suited to provide high levels of treatment to significant industrial trade wastes of a complex nature”.
The Chronicle’s article goes on to say that … “The landfill’s owners are now working on pre-treating the leachate and the council’s utility assets manager Joanna Saywell suggested Midwest may be able to fully treat the leachate within a few years.”
The operative words here are “working on”, “may be able to” and “a few years”. This non specificity will allow all parties concerned to drag their feet for quite possibly another decade or so given the wheels of bureaucracy turn very slowly. Note they have dragged their feet for one decade already whilst polluting the Tutaenui stream to who knows what extent … as deputy Mayor “Mr McManaway said it was a worry that records of what was being put through the system [that he serves] had not been maintained.” (Wanganui Chronicle 20/12/14). In fact, with 10 of the required 36 reports over nine years either missing or non-existent, and a decade of largely non-compliance, going by the water testing that did occur, we can fairly safely conclude it’s in a bad state. And the in-stream biota surveys? There’s been none since 2002 … the consent requires one every three years so four are missing. (These surveys tell us the state of the stream’s aquatic life, if any). My two queries in March to RDC asking if there’d be another one hasn’t garnered a response yet.
In December 2014, pre-consent stage, the official reporting of leachate-truck activity was one load every two days:
“Leachate is put into the waste water system about every second day under a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ between the council and Bonny Glen operators Midwest Disposals Ltd… Some days leachate can contribute almost 70 per cent of the ammoniacal nitrogen levels which regularly exceed consented levels..” Wanganui Chronicle 20/12/14
A person on the truck route commented on the article however that they were seeing the leachate truck go past at least three times a day. A conservative estimate then would make that one round trip a day at least.
Waste water treatment in Marton
Fast forward eight months. The consents are granted to quintuple the landfill size (not quadruple as previously broadcast) with a now increased volume of leachate due to the extended capacity of the landfill. It’s been observed by a local who lives on the truck route, that the leachate tanker is making seven round trips a day on average, and often there are two tankers working bringing that up to twelve round trips a day, six days per week. So we have progressed from an estimated six truckloadsper week to a conservative forty two to seventy two per week. That is quite some increase.
We are certainly going to be needing that multi million dollar upgrade and let’s keep our fingers crossed that Midwest “may be able” to treat the leachate themselves “within a few years” as they’re saying. As Nigel Belsham’s quoted in the article, “… if it was trade waste causing problems to the plant and not domestic waste, the bill should be picked up by industry.”
But then we do have a gentleman’s agreement that it appears, at all costs must be kept. Hopefully RDC will see their way clear to getting an in-stream biota survey soon so we can know how trashed the Tutaenui really is.
If you haven’t surely already deduced this, RDC, like councils everywhere these days, has been placing corporate interests above the interests of both the environment and the people who elect them. These same councils espouse ‘sustainability’ – the new ‘buzz’ word – while in reality their practices are everything but sustainable.
“PLEASE! Get this out to the people of the Navajo Nation, to the people of Colorado + New Mexico, to state representatives, and NATIONAL Government (Senators and Congressmen).
Full website post covering this story with all the links shown in the video here:
I stand behind these findings , and the people of the Navajo Nation need to compare the Animas river pollution to oil well / fracking wastewater injection chemicals IMMEDIATELY.
This wastewater delivery looks like an attempt to spread the chemicals on purpose — to cover up the wastewater in the Animas coming from the nearby Oil / Gas / Wastewater disposal wells located all around Durango Colorado (each well containing millions of gallons of toxic water . Thousands of wells nearby the location in question).
In my assessment, most likely one of the wastewater injection wells gave way, since NASA / NOAA are already studying the same area due to a HUGE methane leak causing a pocket of methane over the whole 4 corners region.
This same “leaking” injection well operation is now the area where the Animas river has been polluted. The “Gold Mine” story might just be that — a STORY made up.. not based in actual reality.
_____
The Environmental Protection Agency caused a toxic water spill into the Animas river, which feeds the Navajo Indian Nation with water.
The spill was blamed on an “old Gold mine” which somehow had toxic water released by the EPA during an inspection of a well / mine location.
When the EPA did their inspection of this supposed “Gold King Mine”, they somehow released millions of gallons of toxic water into the Animas river. The toxic spill thus cut off the water supply to the people down stream.
______
Fracking wastewater injection wells are quite possibly the REAL cause of this waste spill by the EPA since the area is leaking methane to the point where NASA / NOAA are studying the area currently (2015).
Massive leaks in the huge fracking / oil pumping operation have been detected.. thus if gas is leaking from these wells, no doubt the waste water which they inject under pressure is also being released.
I’m venturing a guess that if the water in the Animas was tested , and you looked for oil pumping / gas well operation chemcials .. that you’d find out a giant WASTEWATER DISPOSAL WELL must have broke when the EPA was inspecting it.
Was it a Gold mine, or was it a large wastewater disposal well?
Since there are THOUSANDS of wastewater disposal wells, oil wells, and frack wells , and only ONE Gold Mine .. the chances of this giant release of wastewater coming from a wastewater well are much higher than a “Gold Mine” being the culprit.
One culprit cannot be sued, or blamed (the Old Gold Mine).. the OTHER culprit (the fracking injection well / oil pumping operations) are capable of being legally held responsible.
Could it be that they sent these polluted tanks of water in the hopes the Indians would spread it out across their land, and then the EPA would have an excuse for all the fracking / oil pumping injection chemicals to be across the Animas river?!
People in the Indian reservations need to immediately compare the Animas pollution water to known Oil / Gas well drilling injection chemicals.
I’d be willing to bet that we’d find out this “spill” is from a fracking / injection / wastewater operation as opposed to an “old gold mine”.
Why are NASA / NOAA out in the same area studying leaking gas wells? I think it is obvious the two are related.”
This is from the Wanganui Chronicle and updates us on where RDC is up to with their plans to solve the significantly long standing status of non-compliance with regard to the leachate pollution of the Tutaenui Stream. (To read the full history of this and the non compliance reports see former Martonian Hamish Allan’s submission to the consent hearings earlier this year. There should be an in stream biota survey every three years and it appears there have only been two). More on this later.
Recently a local resident who lives on the truck route informed me he sees 12 round trips per day of the leachate tanker. This is a significantly larger volume than the number that has been cited to the public.
An upgrade is good news will not be before its time.
Here is the Chronicle article:
“A multi-million-dollar, three-year upgrade of the Marton wastewater treatment plant has been proposed.
Rangitikei district councillors will this morning discuss changes aimed at making the plant compliant with its resource consent.
The MWTP has been non-compliant for at least a decade, partly due to its acceptance of leachate (run-off) from the nearby Bonny Glen landfill. The latest compliance report found the plant’s discharge into the Tutaenui Stream “significantly non-compliant”. At times, ammoniacal nitrogen levels have been 35 times the recommended limit and deemed to adversely affect aquatic life…”
Returning here to the story of the pollution of our supposedly ‘clean green’ waterways, the centennial commemoration of the landing at Gallipoli, and Muaupoko’s once pristine lake that Lord General Freyberg trained in. Freyberg is known to younger New Zealanders as a General who served in WWII. He earned his VC (Victoria Cross) however in WW1 as an expert swimmer. My father was his driver for four years during WW2. To read Part 1 go HERE.
Lake Horowhenua (continued)
Groups boating on Lake Horowhenua 1908 (Photo courtesy of Horowhenua Historical Society Inc.)
In the case of the Muaupoko people, their lake that historically they’d generously shared with the locals for recreation, was also a sacred site, being the resting place for many of their ancestors. The Councils of the day that agreed to its pollution would have known that the owners also relied on it for their food and income. They’d had to wade out amidst human feces and toilet paper to their eel weirs (traps or nets). Other food sources within the lake would also become so inedible, many of the people eventually moved away. The fouling of food sources like this is tantamount to emptying a septic tank straight onto your neighbour’s vegetable garden. Not ending there however, the lake’s pollution has continued unabated and is now one of the most polluted in the country. Even today apparently, sewage is released whenever a nearby pumping station is overloaded, and it’s been said from testing of the water that a small glass-full has the potential to kill an animal or even a small child.
The Rangitikei District Council logo, tweaked for truth
The cited $2.886 million to clean up the sheer negligence of previous generations has become it appears, the new norm. Horizons Regional Council is tasked with ‘maintaining and enhancing our Region’s land, water, air, coast and habitat protection.’ The operative and strategic word here is ‘enhancing’. A fairly all- encompassing term that doesn’t tie the Council to too much in the way of specifics. This practice is borne out in other regions as well. When I began to research the cleanliness of our waterways in this ‘clean green’ land … I began to notice that although there is a standard of acceptance set, it’s not always strictly enforced as was evident in the case of the discharge of leachate into our Rangitikei waterways for nine years. In spite of efforts in 2011 by local residents to bring this into the light of day via the Community Committee, council ignored their cries and the pollution still continues. (Documented on this site). In recent discussions with our Mayor Andy Watson about this pollution, he put it into ‘perspective’ by citing the fact that it is not out of the ordinary and other Rangitikei treatment plants are also non compliant. A bit like our kids do when they argue ‘everybody else is doing it’. We have here an informal agreement that financially benefits the offshore corporation, Midwest Disposals, while severely polluting our waterways … with promises for clean up that never quite materialize. Councils are well versed in rhetoric like, ‘it will take time’, ‘it could take months’ and more recently, in the case of the Rangitikei, ‘we’re chipping away at it’ … dragging the chain as it were, to forestall any definite action.
Add to this Lake Horowhenua’s damning history and the fact that the nearby Manawatu River is one of the most polluted in the Southern Hemisphere … plus the numerous other tales of pollution NZ-wide, and you will see a familiar pattern emerging. We are touted in the international advertising spin as being ‘clean and green’, yet in the cold light of day our environment is being severely trashed. Ironically the rhetoric on the associated council and environmental websites all point to the need for sustainable practices (UN Agenda 21 plan) and yet the powers that be fail to live up to them. Double speak and hypocrisy at it’s worst. The mentality our governing authorities have that we can simply pay all this damage forward to future generations, whilst corporate business interests continue to profit and/or save money now will not only be the death of our planet but the death of us as well. As it’s been said by an astute observer, ‘there can be no economy on a dead planet’.
ANZAC Service at Lake Horowhenua, Levin
The ANZAC Service
Returning to the ANZAC Day service, it turned out to be one of the nicest ANZAC services we’d ever attended. The people there were warmly welcoming and so interested in our piece of history that they invited us to share. We accepted of course and were touched that this trio of old soldiers who have now passed on, were honoured with a waiata (a song). We felt right at home and were welcomed afterwards to a beautiful spread of kai and a cuppa, with lovingly prepared, locally cooked eel, sandwiches and cream sponges to name a few items on the menu. I’m sure the General himself would have been suitably impressed, and I know my dear Dad would’ve been proud as. Over our cuppa, we also learned something of the history of the lake, its owners who had welcomed us, and their long and ongoing struggle with local council to not only retain it, but to keep it clean, an all too familiar David and Goliath tale in our histories. My father himself had shares in Whanganui tribal lands that he never understood. Confiscated I believe by Te Kooti Tango Whenua (the Land Taking Court).
My father, James Alfred D’Arcy Vernon 1922-2007
Before closing, a word on war. Although we honour our forbears every ANZAC, we need to remember that these loved ones who truly did sacrifice their lives, were pawns in a much larger scheme of events. My father, who went off to WW II with his four brothers at the tender age of 17, said in his latter years that wars would never end because ‘wars make money’. Great Britain, and the royal family both deal in the arms trade and the Queen is the current owner of one sixth of the planet. (Note well, her royal predecessors did not acquire it by entirely peaceful negotiations). She has our nation registered on the SEC website as her corporation … we are a registered company which explains the absence of true care for our environment. Corporations are, above all, about profits.
So, as always, we need to follow the familiar money trail. Those who read beyond the official histories (who know that ‘Maori Wars’ and ‘Indian Wars’ were actually ‘Land Wars’) will also be aware of the role of the Rothschild family in fomenting and profiteering from wars for hundreds of years, boasting even of funding both sides. The death toll from WWII was over 50 million lives.
“I care not what puppet is placed upon the throne of England to rule the Empire on which the sun never sets. The man who controls Britain’s money supply controls the British Empire, and I control the British money supply”…Nathan Mayer Rothschild
Our loved ones were simply pawns.
“If my sons did not want wars, there would be none”… Mrs Rothschild
Nevertheless we honour the fact that our loved ones went honourably and served their beloved countries and peoples. These other people, the profiteers, have blood on their hands that one day, I believe, they will have to answer for.
Here is a story of pollution at its worst. ANZAC, unexpectedly this year (2015) became the avenue of discovery and the event that prompted me to write this post. A note first to non-Kiwis/Aussies, ANZAC stands for Australian New Zealand Army Corps … every 25th of April, we commemorate our brave soldiers … our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, who both risked and sacrificed their lives in the two World Wars.
A young Freyberg at Oriental Bay in Wellington NZ
I hadn’t intended going to an ANZAC service and haven’t done since my father passed away in 2007. It brings back my deep sadness at losing him. An ad however, in the Horowhenua Chronicle, was brought to my attention by a family member about a special service to be held at Lake Horowhenua, Levin, honouring Lord General Freyberg for the centenary of the Gallipoli landing. My father had been his driver for four years during WWII, and Lake Horowhenua was one of the venues Freyberg had trained at in NZ as a young swimmer. His swimming would later earn him the VC (Victoria Cross) in WWI. The Horowhenua Chronicle read:
” Lieutenant General Bernard Freyberg was a dentist in Levin before World War I; by the end of the war he was a decorated hero and recipient of the Victoria Cross. He earned the first of his four Distinguished Service Order medals for a swim he undertook on the morning of the invasion of Gallipoli on April 25, 1915. In darkness, Freyberg had towed to shore a raft of flares to light as decoys before undertaking unarmed and alone a reconnaissance of the large army entrenched nearby.”
This ANZAC service was being organized by Phil Taueki (Muaupoko iwi) one of Lake Horowhenua’s owners and kaitiaki or guardian of the lake. The original commemorative plans would have seen swimmers crossing the lake however, those plans were dropped. You will see why shortly.
General Freyberg (centre) Corporal L. Keucke (left) and L. Sgt. J. Vernon (right)
We had no idea Freyberg had trained in Lake Horowhenua, or even that he had lived so close to our home town, only fifty or so minutes drive away. We decided to go to the service and take along with us the group photo my father treasured of the General, the General’s batman (also my father’s good friend) Laurie Keucke and himself, taken en route from Arrezzo, Rome, when they’d stopped for a ‘brew up’ and refreshments .
Lord General Freyberg
“… although it could be frightening being on the road and always vulnerable to attack, nevertheless the General was always without fear … ” L. Sgt. James Vernon (Driver)
My father remembered Freyberg as a fearless man who already had 18 wounds at that time. His driver from El Alamein to Monte Cassino to Rimini, he said that although it could be frightening being on the road and always vulnerable to attack, nevertheless the General was always without fear.
Freyberg apparently had a sense of humour too behind his fearsome exterior and knew the boys called him ‘Tiny’. Because his parents had emigrated from the UK to NZ when he was just a small child, he would undoubtedly have experienced the Kiwi culture and its characteristic sense of humour growing up. For example, when staff who didn’t like the fact that Kiwi soldiers didn’t always salute them, he’d suggested they try waving instead!
“… they wouldn’t get away with that in the British Army … ” (General Freyberg)
The New Zealand guys always gave him a bit of stick too my father said. Knowing of his swimming expertise, when Freyberg and his men were getting ready to cross the Sangro River during the Italian campaign, someone called out, “Hey Freyberg, you gonna swim across?”. This was met with a tight lipped, “they wouldn’t get away with that in the British Army”, and as always with this kind of comment, a gleam in his eye.
The kind of man the Freyberg was is evident too in his posing for the group photograph. Generals wouldn’t normally be photographed I’ve been told, with that level of staff . After WW II when Freyberg visited Dad’s home town Whanganui, he’d broken rank and hugged my father when he spotted him in the parade … exclaiming how he always remembered the wonderful breakfasts he’d cooked him in the desert. I always remember him as an excellent cook. After Freyberg’s appointment as Governor General of NZ after the war in 1946 my father and other of Freyberg’s staff I’ve heard, would call on him for a cup of tea at his home in Wellington, and every year, there would always be a Christmas card from Government House.
Lake Horowhenua
Lake Horowhenua, Levin, NZ
Returning to Lake Horowhenua, it turns out that the pristine lake the young dentist had trained in all those decades ago, had since been transformed from a valuable source of income and kai (food) for Muaupoko … into a literal toilet bowl. Raw sewage had been pumped into it for two decades starting in the 1950s, and although it ceased in the 1980s, the lake has continued to be polluted to this day by effluent from both surrounding dairy farming and from local agricultural activity. The price tag to clean up the pollution and realize the dream of having swimmers cross the lake on the day was estimated by Horizons to be $2.886 million.
This story is all too familiar. Here in the Rangitikei we have our own pollution scenario, where locals have complained that the extension to Bonny Glen landfill to now nearly quintuple its size, will turn our ‘unspoilt’ district into the toilet bowl rather than the ‘grain bowl’ of the lower North Island. ‘Unspoilt’ is the featured word on our official district logo. This is clearly not true.
“Two-thirds of more than 160 monitored river swimming spots in New Zealand have been deemed unsafe for a dip” NZ Herald 30/1/2015
Read Part 2 of this post with more on the events that transpired that ANZAC Day.
“While more rubbish is set to pour into soon-to-expand Bonny Glen Landfill, the Rangitikei District’s water and roading will not be trashed.
The Rangitikei District Council assets and infrastructure committee heard on Thursday it would still be a few months before a solution would be finalised concerning leachate from Bonny Glen.
Leachate causes a problem for the Marton Wastewater Treatment Plant….
Bonny Glen manager Paul Mullinger …. was taking the issue “very seriously”….Cr Dean McManaway said it was good to see this was a priority. “It’s important we keep chipping away and not let this rest.” “
Watch this space … leachate ’causes a problem’ is quite an understatement … witness seven years of regular non compliance which RDC has failed to address thus far in spite of it being highlighted by Marton’s Community Committee. RDC is ‘chipping away’ at this and … it will reportedly be several months before a solution is finalized.
Here’s hoping this will not be another of those delayed solutions that never quite materializes.
I’m not faintly surprised at this decision. The day I attended the hearing and heard the ‘independent’ Chair’s Freudian slip … “When the consent is granted …” illustrated quite graphically for me, the extent of the independence of the commission. In addition, all the concerns that any community would naturally have … leachate, trucks, property values … all these were effectively taken off the table. Hamstrung from the start. It is the neighbors of the landfill in particular who will have to live with this. And all those conditions … I’ll be watching keenly to see how strictly they’re adhered to. If it’s anything like the vigilance we have with other consents and pollution of our environment of late, it’s going to be an interesting road forwards.
“The Bonny Glen landfill expansion has been given the go-ahead.
The landfill’s owners, Midwest Disposals has been granted all resource consents to expand the operation.
The decision, released yesterday afternoon, granted the consents for 35 years with land use consents in perpetuity.
It means the size and life of Bonny Glen, near Marton, will increase significantly over the next four decades. The capacity will increase almost five-fold….”
Following on from the RDC meeting in late March 2015 where the topic of eliminating the spraying of glyphosate in urban Rangitikei’s public places was discussed following a report by Council into cost effective alternatives. If you missed part 1, read it HERE first.
The Outcome
Fast forward to the day of the meeting in March when the outcome was given. Council read out their report, embedded in the Order Paper [on page 26, Council Agenda 26 March 2015 electronic version.compressed (1)] which states, briefly, that a no spray register will be established so that those who wish to opt out can, and any areas thus opted out of will be kept weed free by that person. There was then some discussion around the issue and other possible options put forward. Cr Sheridan suggested that the no spray areas could be sprayed by the current contractor using a non chemical spray. Mayor, Andy Watson however, foresaw difficulties price-wise with that, potentially incurring more expense for ratepayers, so the idea was dropped. Cr Sheridan asked why the report had not addressed the initial health issues raised at the forum in November. CEO Ross McNeill responded that he had only been directed to research what alternative options other Councils used … not the health issues. More discussion ensued and Cr Ash tried to point out the recent findings by WHO and Canterbury University regarding health risks. She was promptly reminded that this was question time, not discussion time. Seconds later (still question time) another Cr expounded on the safety of glyphosate with nods of agreement all around.
So you will see here, the way Council operates, there is no room for discussion or dialogue, except by Council of course, amongst themselves, whilst you sit and listen only. There is no opportunity to correct any misconceptions, or to raise any other issues. Your five (rather four) minutes … is it. There ends your input.
Would it not have been pertinent to research the health issues which, after all, were the point of the whole exercise? It seems the RDC takes the three monkeys approach (if we don’t look at, hear or speak about the research then we won’t need to be concerned … even if it is by Doctors and Professors). By virtue of one very specific Mayoral direction here, the whole health issue is effectively sidelined. I feel this is a very lop sided way of interacting with the community … the very people who elect these representatives. You may or may not agree.
Two Other Questions Raised by Councillors
I should add here, in the mix of the discussion, two other questions were raised by other Crs. One was the cost of preparing the report, specifically … how many hours did it take [waste] in preparation? A very pointed question to which of course I was unable to respond in any way.
So here, a person is vilified for daring to raise health concerns for the public, health concerns the public are unaware of because, as has been established by France’s highest Court, the manufacturer has lied about its safety. Everybody believes it is safe.
It clearly isn’t.The other question was, ‘who else was concerned about this issue or was it just one person?’ [that would be me presumably].I was unable of course to respond to that either … had I been able to I could have said there were, as far as I knew, at least ten other persons anyway. Quite likely more but we shall see.
An UPDATE here: There are currently, as at 16 July 2015, 111 others who are concerned. If you happen to be concerned also, please sign the petition HERE. You could also ‘like’ our glyphosate FACEBOOK PAGE and stay informed with regular updates on this issue.
Midwest Disposals has added further planting to its plans for the proposed Bonny Glen landfill expansion.
The minor changes are in response to concerns highlighted by commissioners considering the company’s resource consent application.
Midwest has applied for resource consents with Horizons Regional Council and Rangitikei District Council to extend the life and size of the landfill near Marton. More trees will be planted along the edge of the site to mitigate the effects the landfill will have on the landscape and views…. read article HERE
LEACHATE poisoning the Tutaenui Stream, rampant vermin, toxicity, litter, bad smells, increased truck traffic … the crime sheet against the Bonny Glen landfill near Marton is long and ugly.
That is the way it usually is for those lords of the underworld – rubbish dumps.
The application by the waste facility’s owners, Midwest Disposals, to significantly expand the site has naturally prompted fierce opposition from those who live sufficiently close to suffer from its operation.
That opposition has been well-voiced at the consent hearing in Feilding which wrapped up last month – though some concerning aspects around Bonny Glen’s business, extra traffic and leaching among them, were unfortunately ruled beyond the scope of the three commissioners who will issue their decision in May…. read article HERE
Horowhenua District Council is hell bent on keeping the Levin Landfill open despite the huge environmental and financial costs. HDC has admitted they cannot contain the landfill leachate that seeps into the Hokio Stream. Their approach is to change resource consent conditions so they can legally pollute the wider environment including the stream.
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