Bottler caught illegally taking water likely to avoid serious punishment

Monday, 27 August 2018

The site of a water bottling plant in Christchurch, which used to be the Kaputone Wool Scour.

A water bottling operation caught illegally taking water from an aquifer beneath Christchurch is likely to escape serious punishment.

Cloud Ocean Water says it is in the process of commissioning its plant and it is working with the authorities to resolve 'teething issues as they arise'.

It has permission to extract about 1.5 billion litres of water a year at a plant it is building in Belfast. It intends bottling the water to sell overseas.

A resource consent condition required the China-based firm to notify Environment Canterbury (ECan) of when it would begin pumping water from a 33m bore on its site at the old Kaputone wool scour.

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But ECan served an abatement notice on the company on Friday after it emerged it had been taking water without informing authorities.

The firm is unlikely to face serious sanction because the notice only requires it to stop taking the water and meet the conditions of its resource consent.

Cloud Ocean water was rapped over the knuckles last year over health and safety concerns. A worker at its site was photographed apparently welding while straddling a forklift.

It does not allow for a fine or tougher punishment, and more serious enforcement action will only happen if Cloud Ocean Water continues to pump water illegally - meaning it may escape serious punishment.

Enforcement is dictated by the Resource Management Act (RMA). It was Cloud Ocean Water's first consent breach.

ECan regional leader of RMA investigations Valyn Barrett said: 'An abatement notice requiring someone to stop operating their business is an extremely stringent step.

'An abatement notice is the first option on our enforcement spectrum, prior to infringement or prosecution.

'It is important to note that we work within the framework of the Resource Management Act and cannot issue punishments outside of that framework.'

The most serious offences can lead to a conviction, imprisonment for up to two years and fines of up to $600,000 for a company.

ECan raised its concerns with Cloud Ocean Water earlier this month. It issued the abatement notice after the company failed to heed its instructions to stop.

Pricing bottled water has proven a contentious topic, with the Government making slow progress on bringing in a levy.

The company also failed to provide water meter data on how much water it has taken - another breach of its conditions.

The abatement notice means it must now stop taking groundwater until it meets all consent conditions.

A Cloud Ocean Water spokeswoman said: 'This is a new business and the company is making a $50 million investment in Belfast and creating 200 new jobs turning a disused wool scour into an exporting plant.

'Cloud Ocean is in the process of commissioning the plant and working with ECan and authorities to resolve any teething issues as they arise.'

The firm installed monitoring equipment and thought ECan had been receiving water flow data for the last three months, she said, and is working hard to resolve the issue.

It is not clear when Cloud Ocean Water began illegally taking water or how much has been extracted, though the spokeswoman said the amount was 'small' as production is yet to begin.

The firm was granted the consent in December. There was outrage from some when it emerged the commercial take cost the company $2277 for the resource consent application and a few hundred dollars annually for monitoring costs.

Because water cannot be priced, the public recoups little from water bottling operations, other than minor administration costs.

Pricing bottled water was a hot topic during the General Election campaign but progress to introduce a levy on exports appears to have stalled over issues of free trade.

In June, then-acting Prime Minister Winston Peters suggested he was confident a solution could be found before the end of the year.

Earlier this year, the Christchurch City Council investigated whether it could introduce a special levy on the bottling industry. It found a targeted rate was not feasible because the relevant infrastructure is privately owned.

In November, Cloud Ocean Water also fell foul of health and safety regulator WorkSafe, which issued notices over concerns about electrical safety, falls from heights and the workplace environment.

Workers were photographed standing precariously on the forks of a forklift truck while they carried out dangerous jobs.

A WorkSafe spokeswoman said: 'WorkSafe has been aware of health and safety concerns at the Cloud Ocean Water site since September 2017.

'WorkSafe is still making regular visits to the site to ensure they are meeting their obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act and that the site is safe for operation.'