Urgent call for help, from Frack Free Kapiti and Climate Justice Taranaki.

Please help – we need as many people as possible to submit to the Environmental Protection Authority to help save the Blue Whales and Maui’s Dolphins’ habitat:

Oil and gas industry development must stop in our Blue Whale and Maui’s Dolphin neighbourhoods.

An Austrian-owned oil company (OMV) has applied to develop seven more oil
wells from its Maari platform between Farewell Spit and South Taranaki.
We, the NZ public, have less than one week to register our opinion with
the Environmental Protection Authority regarding OMV’s application, so
make your opinion count.

A Quick Option:

Fill in the EPA’s online form with your details, tick the DECLINE box, cut
and paste the suggested text below, and/or add your own, tick the I wish
to speak (or not) and press send.  Online submission form is here:
http://www.epa.govt.nz/sites/submissions/_layouts/FormServer.aspx?XsnLocation=/sites/submissions/FormServerTemplates/OMV_Maari.xsn&ClientInstalled=false&Source=http://www.epa.govt.nz/sites/submissions/FormServerTemplates/Forms/All%2520Forms.aspx&DefaultItemOpen=1

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I believe the OMV New Zealand Limited Application should be declined
because not enough information has been provided regarding the
environmental impacts the proposed development will have on the biological
diversity and integrity of marine species, ecosystems, and processes; nor
on the rare and vulnerable ecosystems and the habitats of threatened
species.  No impact reports have been furnished regarding the harm seismic
testing and drilling vibrations are known to have done to whales and
dolphins and impact on Blue Whales and Maui’s Dolphins has not been
detailed when it is known they are threatened species in the environment
under consideration.

OMV assert their approach to disposal of thousands of cubic meters of
contaminated waste is the ‘disperse and dilute’ option. Included in the
list of waste going overboard is ‘completion fluid’. Although content
details are not given, it is widely known this type of fluid has
ingredients that are toxic to marine life in minute doses. If a
catastrophic spill was to occur, the impact on our marine environment, the
coastal communities and the short and long term economic impacts on those
communities have not been addressed.  And as Coexit is the dispersant
included in the Maritime cleanup plan, the impact of Coexit on the health
of the marine environment and the human communities, both short and long
term, needs to be detailed before an informed decision can be made on
behalf of our communities. The EPA is empowered to consider cumulative
effects, and I am concerned about the cumulative effects of these seven
additional wells, taken together with the already existing oil and gas
activities in the area.

The economic benefits verses the costs and economic effects of the risks
are also not clear for our communities, especially as these extracted and
processed oil resources will go direct to overseas markets, not ours.
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The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, 29 July at 5 pm.

Note: if adding your own text, cut and paste from a word doc as the EPA
site times out after half an hour.

More about OMV’s application here:
http://www.epa.govt.nz/EEZ/omv/Pages/default.aspx

See also Climate Justice Taranaki’s press release and suggested points for
submissions: http://climatejusticetaranaki.info
CJT’s full submission will also be available on the website soon.