NZ Herald, June 2009

Posted in: Perspectives: Tuesday, 30 June 2009

NZ Herald, June 2009

Richard Michael, Chief Executive, Straterra

Auckland is gearing up for a huge amount of essential infrastructure development over the next decade – including a number of roads of national significance.

Our civil construction industry certainly has the skills and capacity - the burning question is will it be able to source the aggregates it needs to build them?

New Zealand’s civil construction sector is one of the most aggregate hungry in the world. Current consumption is estimated at 50 million tonnes per year and around 75 per cent of that is for local authority work.

Without aggregates construction simply could not go ahead – roads, schools, homes, hospitals, railway, cycletracks, drainage and broadband projects wouldn’t happen. It is the bedrock of modern society.

Yet, as demand from councils grows, authorities’ own planners are increasingly closing off access to local quarrying resources – often unwilling to renew existing quarry permits, let alone grant new ones.

Industry experts have now warned that the gap between future demand for aggregate and consented reserves is widening and Auckland only has between eight and 12 years of consented resources remaining.

The attitude of Auckland’s local authorities – and many other local urban bodies - appears to be based on an entrenched and outdated view of quarries as noisy, dirty and environmentally undesirable neighbours.

In my role as Chief Executive of Straterra, the industry group representing New Zealand’s natural resources industries, I aim to raise awareness of the misconceptions surrounding quarrying and other extraction industries.

Local authorities want huge amounts of aggregates – but don’t want them produced on their patch. About 25 per cent of aggregates required for Auckland’s road are already sourced over 100km away in Waikato or Northland.

Clearly any extraction process has an environmental cost but, as James Boyce, president of The Aggregate and Quarry Association of New Zealand has pointed out, quarrying faces some of the most stringent environmental control regimes of any industry.

The AQA, which represents 85 per cent of companies involved in quarrying in this country, has been driving home its messages about sustainability since the 1970s.

The industry takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously – Winstone Aggregates in Auckland was the first company of its kind in New Zealand to have a Biodiversity Action Plan.

Today, new quarries are established in ways that ensure they are as unobtrusive as possible with visual impact minimised through extensive landscaping, screen planting and raised earth banks.

Technological developments have been significant. Machinery is now fitted with noise mufflers and there are excellent measures to address issues of noise, dust and water quality – so much so that air and water quality at quarries can sometimes be better than on neighbouring properties.

Site rehabilitation strategies include replanting native bush, reshaping land or backfilling to create ponds and pasture.

Former quarry sites are increasingly being put to community use. Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium is built on a former quarry site and a $28 million marine education centre is proposed for a former quarry at Wellington’s Lyall Bay.

Any environmental impact needs to be set against the carbon footprint of transporting aggregates long distance – not to mention the increased traffic flow that brings and wear and tear of heavy trucks on roads.

The National Freight Demands Study found that over 40 million tonnes of aggregate was moved around New Zealand last year, the largest amount of material moved in the country – and 99 per cent of it was transported by road.

There is also a heavy economic toll. The price of a truckload of gravel can double for every 30km it has to travel – a cost picked up by ratepayers and tax payers.

Local Government Minister Rodney Hide recently pointed out that long term council community plans reveal local authorities are planning significant rates increases over the next 10 years to fund extra spending.

Mr Hide said councils should think hard about the sustainability of funding and be vigilant about cost increases. Reducing costs by allowing greater access to local aggregate resources could certainly play a part.

The AQA and quarrying industry is undertaking forward planning to ensure future supplies of aggregates to meet infrastructure needs. But in order to do so it needs government support.

Currently neither local or central government has any provision in place to ensure adequate supplies of aggregate. Access to appropriate land is subject to the Resource Management Act at local body level.

It is absolutely vital that councils shake off the outdated and rigid mindset that aggregates should be sourced from outside urban areas. They cannot afford to sit on their hands on this issue. The process of obtaining a new quarrying permit can take many years.

Better solutions need to be found to the high environmental and financial cost of transporting aggregates substantial distances by road. Very good sources of aggregate are available close to Auckland and the way forward is to allow realistic access to those.

Straterra has been formed with the aim of bringing together the interests of the entire natural resources sector and related bodies. Its vision is of prosperity through one partnership, including engaging with Government.

We believe that all natural resources, including aggregates, should be identified in the local government planning processes so that future planning decisions can be taken with the full knowledge of the trade offs that need to be made.

We will be pressing for a national policy statement outlining long term goals for the sector and a whole of Government response to issues related to the natural resources industry.