Modelling has shown virtually no sediment from the disposal of sand from the proposed dredging of the Otago Harbour channel will be deposited in Blueskin Bay or along the coast either side of Karitane Point, coastal scientist and environmental engineer Dr Robert Bell says.
Granting consent for Port Otago to deepen and widen its channel will be in the best interests of New Zealand's export sector, Fonterra trade and operations general manager strategy Nigel Jones says.
While the noise effects from dredging Otago Harbour are likely to be minor, operational noise from extending the multipurpose wharf might increase gradually in Careys Bay, acoustic consultant Keith Ballagh says.
If Otago Harbour is not deepened to take bigger vessels, by 2028 the region will have lost more than 890 jobs and $107 million a year, including $50 million a year in household income, economic consultant Geoffrey Butcher estimates.
Effects of Port Otago's Next Generation project will be avoided or mitigated by proposed conditions and an environmental monitoring plan, Port Otago's counsel told a hearing panel yesterday.
Due to the sheer volume of material to be dredged as part of the proposed widening and deepening of Otago Harbour's channel, an alternative disposal site is needed, Port Otago general manager infrastructure Lincoln Coe says.
A paua poaching operation has been busted by one of the biggest fisheries surveillance operations undertaken in Dunedin, the Ministry of Fisheries says.
A recommendation State Highway 1 from Dunedin to Invercargill not be classed nationally strategic "blows me away", Otago regional councillor Bryan Scott says.
The Otago Regional Council should "vigorously" lobby the Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma) to ensure it does not drop newspaper advertising as a mode of notifying the public about hazardous substances and new organism applications, Cr Michael Deaker says.
Feedback from a public meeting about the future of the Hawksbury Lagoon will be converted into a series of options and presented back to the community.
The company which runs drug and alcohol programmes at the Otago Corrections Facility has been criticised for failing "dismally" to meet the provisions of the Employment Relations Act in its decision to fire a counsellor.
It was a charity auction for the Otago Community Hospice and its chief executive was the only one to walk away with a Ralph Hotere work.
It is hoped new terms of reference for the mana-to-mana group between the Otago Regional Council and Kai Tahu Otago runanga will improve their relationship.
The terms of reference were proposed by Kai Tahu ki Otago and, after consideration at a recent mana-to-mana meeting, it asked for formal endorsement of the terms by the regional council.
Conflict between the need for irrigation water on the Strath Taieri and saving a population of endangered galaxiids has been resolved without going to the Environment Court.
Port Otago's Project Next Generation resource consents should be granted, subject to conditions, the Otago Regional Council's staff report says.
More than 100 submissions on Port Otago's consent applications to dredge Otago Harbour will be heard over three weeks in Dunedin next month.
The hunt for the moose in Fiordland may soon heat up, with a $100,000 "bounty" being offered for a photograph of the elusive animal.
People need to be reminded it is "totally not OK" to shoot native kereru (wood pigeon), Project Kereru's Nik Hurring says.
About $10,000 has been raised by the Dunedin Japanese community for victims of the Christchurch and Japanese earthquakes.
It is hoped a visit by Chinese airline and government officials, travel wholesalers and media to Queenstown next month will translate quickly into more high-spending Asian visitors to the Lakes district.
