Tuesday, May 5, 2009

DOC forced to revel secret deals on dams

I am disturbed by this news.

"DOC yesterday released details of 12 financial agreements, worth $22.23m, with developers in the past seven years after requests by The Press under the Official Information Act.
All of the deals, except one $105,000 agreement, were with power companies.
The department says the deals address environmental impacts and show its "practical and open" approach.


Critics described the deals as outrageous and accused the department of not doing enough to protect the environment."


"DOC policy general manager Doris Johnston said the agreements showed the department's practical and open response to conservation concerns.
"If the department can get an agreement to fund acceptable work to help mitigate the environmental impacts of a development, we will do so," she said.


Dunedin conservationist Dave Witherow called the agreements "utterly outrageous".
"If they were so proud of them, why did they have to be dragged out of them?" he said.
"If you prefer this course, which is what DOC does, then New Zealand will end up like all these other countries over-populated and environmentally rooted, with DOC left to look after the mummified remnants."

He described DOC as "feeble" and said it did not object to any significant project.
Upland Landscape Protection Society member Ewan Carr said DOC was failing in its role as an environmental safeguard.
"It has abandoned its obligation by receiving cheques on the quiet," he said."


Deals on the quiet, with power companies, dragged into the open by the Official Information Act... My question is ,"Who are you working for DOC?"

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