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Day 1 Went down to the Environment Court in Hamilton today to observe the action. It is being held at 9.30 am at 2nd Floor, BNZ Building, Victoria St (opposite Market Place). The offices of the Maori Land Court are being used. Enviro Waste was represented by a 5 strong legal team headed by Paul Cavanagh QC. All of the appealers are representing themselves. The day was taken up with applications by 9 persons and groups to join the appeal under Section 274 of the Resource Management Act. Anyone can appeal, but this latish stage you can only join the proceedings if you can demonstrate an interest in the proceedings "greater than the public at large" (shades of the GE Royal Commission). The advantage of being joined to the proceedings in this way is that costs cannot be awarded against you, even if you lose the case. After a day of hearing argument, and listening to Enviro Waste's submission opposing every one of the applicants' applications to join, the judge ruled that they all could. It's a bit disappointing that Enviro Waste was more interested in winning the appeal by having applicants, or their evidence, struck out, rather than trying to out-argue their evidence on its merits. A second tactic that Enviro Waste has used has been to warn appealers away financially. More about that after the case has finished; suffice to say for now that the full evidence from both sides will not be heard because the objectors have far less funds at their disposal than the applicant which is 50% publicly owned. That each party to these proceedings are so unequally funded means that the arguments for each side are not being equally put. There is no doubt in my mind that if equal funding were available to both sides, the superdump proposal would be laughed out of court. On the postive side, the judge has gone to a lot of trouble to make the appealers feel comfortable in what could have been an intimidating environment. He has given a lot of latitude to lay people not quite knowing how it all works, trying to do their best. He, a pakeha, greeted us all for the first three minutes or so in Maori, paying his respects to the local Tangata Whenua, and agreeing to start proceedings with a karakia. In turn the elder who presented the karakia was respectfully short, aware that almost none of us understood him. There was a very strong sense of mutual respect between the court and the several hapu who were in the audience, and who comprise most of the 9 groups who have been joined to the case. When the judge suggested that, since the submissions to date of the hapu were almost identical, they they consider presenting a joint case as much as possible, the response from the hapu groups was clearly positive. They sensed I think that the judge could have just as easily ruled that they were not eligible to appear, and are determined to repay his courtesy with courtesy. In New Zealand right now race relations are strained, bogged down by media that will not look at the real issues, and on the other hand by situations so laden with political correctness that some pakeha get irritated. Here today, neither extreme occurred, and it was a great feeling to be present where mutual goodwill was very real. Day 3 The head of the engineering company Enviro Waste appointed to oversee the project spent the day reading out his 100 plus page submission. I've become the main jotter-down and briefer of one of the appealers, feeding her material for her submission and cross-examination which starts tomorrow (like all of the appealers, she cannot afford a lawyer). But after this Friday I'll become yet another of the dropper-outers when my week off work ends. It's an interesting experience, I've found it quite fun. At the beginning for the appealers it was terrifying, now we're finding our feet, but it's no fun doing what is right and having someone in a suit funded by our own rates, trying to have five or six figure costs sums awarded against you as thanks. Day 4 `Their' first witness - the MD of the overseeing engineering firm - spent most of the day being cross-examined by three of the appealers. We scored a few hits. After establishing that the dump will be a 70 metre high rubbish heap, Wendy, one of the appealers, gestured outside the window to Hamilton's highest building, a 10 storey effort. "How high is that?" "40 metres" "So the dump will be nearly twice the height of that building", which caused a few sharp intakes of breath. They had said they will truck the leachate offsite - back to Auckland actually - to be dumped. We established that, although they want consent to run the dump for 25 years, they only have a permit to dump that leachate that will run out in 2004. "We are confident it will be renewed", said the MD. "What evidence do you have to support your confidence" "Er we have a letter from them" "And they could change their mind... What's your back-up plan?" and he replied "There are many technologies that could be available then..." and waffled on unconvincingly. They have made a big deal out of the dump being protected from leachate seepage into the ground by underlaying the dump with 600 mm of clay and a plastic sheet. We got them to admit that both will inevitably fail in time. Their tune now is "but it won't be very much and in any case we'll be able to catch all that..." And finally the dump comes to within 87 metres of a neighbour, so their claim they would cause no noise or odour problems to the neighbours looked pretty weak. So, after four days, Enviro Waste has completed its opening submission and the first of its witnesses has been heard. Only 27 of theirs to go, no doubt ready with rebuttals of the weak spots we've highlighted so far. Tomorrow the judge and the commissioners go off on a site visit. I ended up on the front bench next to Wendy furiously writing down questions & feeding them to her. Was approached at afternoon tea by the head of Enviro Waste's legal team saying I could present her case myself if I wanted - the Environment Court isn't strict about having to be represented by a lawyer. I'm glad Wendy had all but finished her cross-examination of the MD by that stage! Going from observer to "lawyer" in three days flat would have been a bit of a steep learning curve... And that's probably all from me down there as I gotta be back at work next week. I'll miss our brave wee band of desperados.
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