A letter sent by Kathy White, a Waikato Regional Councilor to the Mayor of Buller-

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Dear Garry

Many thanks for your letter to Carl Johnson and others about the concerns of people whose water supplies are affected by a pending 1080 drop.

I’m the Waikato Regional Councillor for Taupo-Rotorua. I currently have complaints in with Carl about five incidents in the King Country alone, where livestock has been killed in 1080 drops and the agencies have either not reported the deaths or they have falsely reported the deaths and/or circumstances. One of these cases unfortunately involves my own council.

I was involved in the writing of the Waikato region aerial 1080 report, and was part of the WRC 1080 working party. My council in the last triennium unanimously voted to include within the scope of our regional plan change, ways to better protect water during aerial 1080 operations. This came about after discovering hundreds of people whose water supplies were poisoned who had not been notified or given an alternative supply of water during the DOC Southern Coromandel poison drop in 2015. DOC’s answer to this was that they were not required by the MoH to walk the streams to identify water takes.

The government soon after brought in the RMA Exemption Regulations for 1080, and resource consenting by regional councils has been abandoned. Without funding, councils do nothing about 1080 complaints.

You are right to battle on behalf of your ratepayers and to demand proof of the need for these operations. I have just done the same for the Pihanga-Kakaramea drop.

Up in Kaeo, when they asked for proof of approvals, they discovered 75% of them were not accurate or were obtained from the wrong people. They managed to stop the drop and go back to consultation. Food for thought.

Kind regards

Kathy White