According to Aggregate and Quarry Association (AQA) CEO Wayne Scott, councils face some interim, if not longer-term, challenges with supplying quarry materials for local roading projects while the Government’s RMA reforms take effect.
While the overall thrust of recent Government announcements is positive for quarries and the critical aggregate, rock, and sand they supply, the Pantene formula will apply.
A youthful Rachel Hunter once promised us how her shampoo would improve things, “It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.”
Unfortunately, the time lag between announcement and implementation of the RMA reforms affecting quarries will be, at best, a couple of frustrating years until meaningful changes in resource consenting are in place.
The AQA had been working with government officials on a draft National Policy Statement for Quarrying to help rectify some issues and provide a clearer and faster way forward.
Regrettably, this has effectively stalled for now, although much of what we have developed will be useful in establishing National Standards under the new Natural Environment Bill. We will continue to promote the principles in the draft but there will be no new NPS or National Environment Standard (NES) documents in the foreseeable future.
Government ministers were advised when taking office that two existing National Policy Statements – Highly Productive Land and Indigenous Bio-diversity – had drafting flaws which were stopping quarries from getting much-needed consents. We also had residual concerns on the NPS for Freshwater Management.
In March, Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop confirmed in a speech to the Planning Council in Invercargill that, as promised, the Government will be “progressing quarrying and mining consistency changes across NPS-Freshwater Management, NPS-Indigenous Biodiversity and NPS-Highly Productive Land”.
Those commitments are very welcome. The NPS-Highly Productive Land will have Land Use Capability (LUC) Class 3 removed from the definition of highly productive land. Over one-third of existing quarries are impacted by the NPS-Highly Productive Land and the promised change will reduce this number considerably.
However, any new National Policy Statements will need to await legislation introduced later this year and passed next year. There will then be a process for each region to develop a regional spatial plan.
Any of you who have worked on similar documents know these are complex. Usually, they take a number of years – though the Government is hopeful it can speed up the process.
Some people may have thought the Fast-track Approvals Act (FTA) would sort out issues for quarries. That legislation is also very welcome but it’s only going to apply to around eight out of a 1000-plus active quarries around our country at this stage.
All other quarries wanting to expand or develop a new site may apply if they qualify under the FTA, although it is likely most will have to do so under an RMA reform process that will take some years to bed in.
The AQA is now focused on helping officials to develop the RMA replacement legislation. They are going to need some help given the speed of change.
We also make the offer of a preparedness to engage with those councils trying to get ahead of the issues created by the demand curve for quarry materials as they project further housing and roading development.
One standout has been Selwyn District Council, which is the fastest growing area in the country with a nearly 30 percent rise in population in the last few years. Selwyn Council knows full well that the average new home requires 250 tonne of aggregate, and that 14,000 tonne of aggregate is needed for a kilometre of two-lane highway.
It is looking to identify current and reasonably proximate rock resource areas to provide for future local supplies of quarry materials, both within Selwyn and the greater Canterbury area.
Given the sometime vociferous opposition to a quarry being developed or even renewed or extended, some councils seem to favour pushing quarries into distant rural areas.
They will need to explain to their ratepayers what this will cost them for their homes and roads, given remotely-sourced materials cost far more through trucking charges than those extracted locally.