Creswell New Zealand (Creswell NZ) has received permission from Whakatāne District Council and Bay of Plenty Regional Council to expand its Okatari Springs water bottling plant.

The permission authorises Creswell NZ to increase abstraction of groundwater from the Awaiti Canal groundwater catchment from 1,358m3 per day to 5,000m3 per day.

Creswell NZ is a wholly owned subsidiary of China-based bottled water supplier Nongfu Spring.

“All relevant effects were considered, including the capacity of the aquifer to sustain the take, cultural implications and the positive effects of additional jobs.”

In order to hear and determine the resource consent applications on behalf of the two councils, an independent panel was created that included commissioners Rob van Voorthuysen and Antoine Coffin.

Fraser said: “The consent process is about assessing the effects of the proposal. All relevant effects were considered, including the capacity of the aquifer to sustain the take, cultural implications and the positive effects of additional jobs.

“We’re satisfied with the outcome and that the conditions associated with the consents put sufficient controls in place to ensure the water resource is sustainably managed and any impact to the environment is appropriately avoided, remedied or mitigated.”

The conditions that had to be met include a maximum annual volume of water take, conservative discharge standards, on-site storm-water attenuation, and comprehensive monitoring and reporting.

Following the approval, Creswell can now upgrade its water bottling line from 8,000 bottles per hour to 10,000. It will also build two new high-speed bottling lines, which will each have the capacity to produce 72,000 bottles per hour.

To house the two new lines, the company will construct a two-storey building with a floor area of around 16,800m2 and a maximum height of 12.6m.