The Environmental Protection Authority, the administrating agency of the Fast-Track Approvals Act, has accepted the Environmental Defence Society’s contention that it has not been lawfully applying the Act. 

EDS’s Barrister Rob Enright wrote to the EPA asserting that the Fast-Track Approvals Act required the EPA to publicly release all information provided to it without delay. Previously, the EPA only published application information once it was deemed complete and within scope. 

The EPA stated in its reply to EDS: “Following your correspondence we have reviewed our position, and agree that, on balance, the documents you have listed must be published by the EPA.”

EDS Chief Operating Officer Shay Schlaepfer said that, “The EPA’s previous approach meant that it was sitting on application documentation for weeks without the public knowing. That’s precious time that interested parties can now use to review a project’s technical information.

“We now expect to see application documentation published on the fasttrack.govt.nz website when it is first lodged with the EPA. That should include an application’s full Assessment of Environmental Effects. As the EPA accepted in its response to us “[t]he Act does contain a positive duty to act promptly where no time limit has been set and establishes a duty for the EPA to avoid delay as far as reasonably practicable.”

EDS has published a plain-English peer-reviewed guide of the Fast-track Approvals Act which is freely available at www.environmentguide.org.nz. 

EDS’s letter and the EPA’s reply are available here and here.

 More: Shay Schlaepfer 027 946 8079 shay@eds.org.nz