At Ports of Auckland, all of our dredging is undertaken by a barge-mounted excavator, which in turn fills a bottom opening barge alongside, as can be seen in the image at the top of the page. For the past 20 years, Ports of Auckland has disposed of all dredged material in the Fergusson Terminal reclamation. However, as we have committed to ending reclamation, a new disposal option was needed.
The permit (EEZ400011), granted by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) authorises the disposal of both capital and maintenance dredged material at the designated Cuvier Disposal Site (CDS), 27 nautical miles (50 km) east of Cuvier Island (Repanga). The CDS disposal site, also known as the Auckland Explosives Disposal Site, has been used periodically since the end of WWII for the disposal of unwanted munitions, vessels and dredged material.
The CDS disposal site is one of five official disposal sites around New Zealand. The CDS is outside the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park and inside New Zealand's exclusive Economic Zone. The location of the disposal site in relation to Auckland and the Coromandel can be seen in the this map. The dumping of approved dredge material is authorised within a circle of 200 metres radius centered on position 36°28′S 176°17′E.
The marine dumping consent authorises the disposal of a total of 2M m3 of dredged material from capital dredging and 1.75M m3 of maintenance dredging at the CDS over the term of this consent. The consent conditions also set annual disposal limits of no more than 50,000 m3 of maintenance dredgings and 400,000 m3 of capital dredgings.
The consent authorises only the disposal of material dredged by a barge-mounted mechanical excavator and disposed of using a bottom-opening barge at the disposal site.
- Ports of Auckland's application and supporting impact assessment and a presentation summarising the impact assessment and findings can all be found here.
- The supporting technical reports prepared for the application canbe found here.
- The independent technical peer reviews of these studies, undertaken by New Zealand and international specialists can be found here.
- EPA's decision report and consent conditions and can be found here or here.
Condition 15 requirements
Certification of a Sampling Plan.pdf
Condition 15 of the MDC requires that Ports of Auckland provide stakeholders access to information prepared as a requirement of the consent. Condition 15 states:
a) Provide the stakeholders identified in the Engagement Log Summary (Attachment 3 of the application) with up-to-date information on the activity authorised by this consent. This information shall include the results of any monitoring, and reports, required to be prepared by the conditions of this consent.
b) Make available the information provided to stakeholders under clause (a) for the duration of this consent through a website maintained by the Consent Holder. The relevant sections will be maintained with the latest consent information.
POAL will therefore routinely update this website with all consent related information from: