An Environment Court judge has ordered works on a controversial sewerage scheme to pause ahead of an urgent hearing.

A group protesting the Tarawera Sewerage Scheme pipeline path going under the road at wahitapu Lake Rotokākahi made the application to halt work last week. It is the latest legal hurdle for Rotorua Lakes Council to complete the works.

In court notes, the judge said he had “significant worries in both directions” and pausing the work was a pragmatic response to an “urgent but complex problem”.

The project would connect hundreds of Tarawera households to the town sewerage system and is aimed at reducing lake pollution.

Council contractors restarted work for the final 1.3km of pipeline on Monday night, with an injunction order in place to stop interference.

The Rotokākahi Board of Control oversees the iwi-owned private lake and its members, alongside other mana whenua and people from farther afield, have protested the scheme route and have occupied Māori land excluded from the injunction.

Seven people were arrested on Monday night, given trespass notices and a formal warning and released without charge for not moving from the worksite.

One person was arrested for trespass on Tuesday night.

Concerns included environmental risks, scheme consultation and how the route passed through an area nearby where tūpuna (ancestors) were buried during the 1886 Mount Tarawera eruption.

The council introduced new mitigation measures to address concerns and maintained it consulted widely over the years.

A tino rangatiratanga flag flies at tapu Lake Rotokākahi near Rotorua. Photo / Laura Smith

The board, along with Protect Rotokākahi Incorporated, initiated the most recent legal proceedings on February 21 calling for works to be halted. It claimed the council did not obtain a resource consent as required under the District Plan and had given itself a permitted activity consent for minor activities.

The council’s infrastructure and environment group manager Stavros Michael previously told Local Democracy Reporting the council did not grant itself a resource consent for the work but recorded its decision to not require one as a permitted activity.

Alternate Environment Judge Laurie Newhook said in Wednesday’s court minutes he had “significant worries in both directions”.

He found the council’s sudden emergence of its permitted activity decision “very troubling”.

Judge Newhook felt the same about the “last-minute application for orders, especially interim ones, given that processes concerning the 24km pipeline have been in train for years, and the new work is for just the last 1.3km, the rest having been built”.

Judge Newhook said there were too many information gaps from both sides.

All affidavits needed to be filed by March 6 and while the council had until then to file its legal submissions, the applicants had until March 10.

The court would endeavour to hold an urgent one-day hearing later that week.

“On the face of things, effects on the cultural environment might ultimately be found to be more than minor, although I remain concerned that parties have allowed 22.7km of pipe to be laid leading to the vicinity or edge of the land they claim as wāhi tapu,” Judge Newhook said.

Pausing the works for the process was a “pragmatic response to an urgent but complex problem” he said, while the court “gets to the bottom of matters”.

He did not expect the applicant parties to publicly claim a win because of it.

Judge Newhook on Thursday directed the council to file by the end of today an affidavit containing a description of how it would keep people, the infrastructure, and the site safe, and ordered it to not advance the works “in any way”.

Council chief executive Andrew Moraes told Local Democracy Reporting on Tuesday that delays, security and court costs had added in excess of $2 million to the sewerage scheme cost.

The total cost is expected to be between $31-32m. It is partially funded by the Ministry for the Environment, Rotorua Lakes Council, and Bay of Plenty Regional Council – together about $10.7m – and the rest by Tarawera ratepayers.

It is the third time in a year the matter has been before a court, following the council’s initially failed injunction application and its successful reapplication.

Laura Smith is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. She previously reported general news for the Otago Daily Times and Southland Express, and has been a journalist since 2019.

- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.