Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

River quality appeal seen as doomed

Updated at 7:33 am on 28 October 2011

Massey University ecologist Mike Joy says Palmerston North City Council faces a near impossible task in trying to convince an Environment Court it is not polluting the Manawatu River.

The city council was served with an abatement notice last month for repeatedly breaching its discharge consent since it opened its wastewater plant in 2003.

The council is disputing the scientific data and appealing against the notice.

Chief executive Paddy Clifford says the regional council is not revealing the full nature of the breaches.

But Dr Joy says the appeal is just a costly, time wasting exercise.

Regional council chief executive Michael McCartney says the council has been fair.

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