'Huge day for Christchurch' as water bottling consents quashed

Wednesday, 20 July 2022

Thousands of people protested a Cloud Ocean Water bottling plant in Belfast, North Canterbury, in 2019.

A Court of Appeal decision to overturn consents allowing two water bottling companies to extract billions of litres of water from Christchurch aquifers will have far-reaching implications.

Anti-water bottling campaigners have won a long-running legal battle after the Court of Appeal quashed a decision by Environment Canterbury (ECan) allowing Cloud Ocean Water and Rapaki Natural Resources to extract 8.8 billion litres of water each year using decades-old consents originally granted for industrial use.

The decision is a big win for Aotearoa Water Action (AWA), which in 2020 failed in its High Court bid to challenge ECan’s decision to grant the consents.

The High Court ruled ECan’s process was lawful, but then AWA filed its case with the Court of Appeal.

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Thousands of people took to the streets in Christchurch in March 2019 to protest against a Canterbury water bottling plant.

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Cloud Ocean Water’s bottling plant in Belfast has been mothballed since September 2019.

The Court of Appeal decision, released on Wednesday, said the consents granted to Cloud Ocean and Rapaki were “not lawfully granted”.

The court said the appeal must be allowed and the decisions granting the consents must be set aside.

It also ruled that ECan must pay some of AWA’s appeal costs, thought to be around $18,000.

Aotearoa Water Action spokesman Peter Richardson said the group was absolutely delighted at the decision.

“It’s a huge day for us and we’d like to think, a big day for Christchurch too. The amount of support that we had at the time to oppose those consents was massive.”

Protesters in central Christchurch in March, 2019.

Thousands of people took to the streets in 2019 to protest against the Cloud Ocean bottling plant.

The group received about $100,000 in donations to fight the consent and Christchurch City Council contributed $50,000.

Richardson said the decision meant that old water consents could not be repurposed for water bottling.

“It’s an important decision for the people of Christchurch. It helps to protect our water.”

When asked if Awa was concerned about a possible appeal from ECan or Cloud Ocean, Richardson said they had the right to appeal, but he believed the decision, made by three judges, was robust.

“I think they will have a hard job overturning it.

“We will enjoy the moment and see what transpires from there.”

ECan general counsel Catherine Schache said the decision was significant and would have implications well beyond water bottling.

However, she did not say what those implications were.

“We now need to take the time to consider what those implications may be, particularly in terms of our consents processing.”

When asked if ECan would appeal to the Supreme Court, Schache said she had just received the decision and ECan has not had the chance to consider if it would be appropriate to appeal.

She expected ECan would have to pay about $18,000 to AWA in costs.

ECan has spent just under $90,000 plus GST on the appeal, Schache said.

ECan chief executive Stefanie Rixecker said the Court of Appeal’s decision turned on whether applications for the take and use of water must be considered together.

It was noted that this issue had not previously been addressed.

Schache said the decision effectively meant the two companies could use the water for its original purpose – meat processing and scouring wool – but not for bottling water.

Cloud Ocean and Rapaki could apply for a water bottling consent but only if they surrendered their existing allocation and reapplied for that same amount or less.

New allocations are restricted to only community supply, not industrial purposes.

Feng Liang, a director of Cloud Ocean’s parent company Ling Hai Group, said the decision was disappointing, but the company needed time to review and consider the Court of Appeal decision properly.

“The decision is potentially precedent-setting – as the court says itself in its judgement – and this will need to be thought through.”

He would not say if Cloud Ocean would appeal the decision.

Its Belfast plant was mothballed in September 2019 due to 'challenging market conditions and working capital constraints'. It has not been operational since.