"The pipis taste like petrol."
Northland kuia Mira Norris sums up the tainted benefits from the oil refinery at Marsden Pt - benefits that are now rapidly shrinking.
Photo: RNZ/Nikki Mandow
The consolation of well-paid refining jobs is evaporating, and the mamae or long-lasting hurt is emerging.
The multibillion-dollar refinery has sat beside Bream Bay for 60 years on land reports say was confiscated from Māori in 1844 over a house that was burned down in Matakana.
Norris of Te Parawhau Ki Ta, the Hapū Authority Trust, and many others in the area, live or labour under the refinery's giant striped chimney stacks.
"We can't take pipis from there, most of them have died away," she said.
"And if you do, they taste like oil.
"That's if you're silly enough to eat them. You only eat one, once," Norris laughs.
The refinery shutdown raises the chance the environment will improve, but at a high cost.
"A lot of our families are going to lose employment there."
For Patuharakeke Te Iwi Trust Board spokesperson Juliane Chetham, it is loss on top of loss.
"If you think about that loss, you want there to be a long-term, ongoing gain for that loss," said Chetham, an environmental planner behind the 2014 environmental management plan for Marsden Point.
Only a few months ago, the board, which sits under Te Parawhau, withdrew its objection to the refinery getting new resource consents from Northland Regional Council.
Back then, Chetham thought they had time - after all, Refining NZ had said any shutdown could be years away.
"The base assumption is that the refinery will operate until 2035, followed by a conversion to an import terminal," its 2020 annual report said.
Chetham said the rapid change is raising questions about land use and clean-up.
"We really weren't clear how quickly the operation... might change," she said.
"We certainly didn't really take that into account.
"There will need to be possibly changes to that resource consent."
The government had to speed up planning, taking into account the pressing need to know just how contaminated the point is, she said.
"I certainly wouldn't be advocating for us to try and get back whenua that was really contaminated.
"But we also don't want to look at what's the bare minimum."
The shutdown is altering the equation, of local resources for local benefit.
Water is a case in point.
An import terminal will need a lot less than the refinery. A private developer has proposed piping the surplus 40km south to Mangawhai for drinking water.
Whangārei District Council needs a buyer.
"That's an option that we could consider," Mayor Sheryl Mai said.
Patuharakeke Te Iwi Trust Board spokesperson Juliane Chetham Photo: SUPPLIED
The feedback from iwi was that "there's discomfort" with sending water outside the rohe, she said.
Water talks have started with Patuharakeke.
Time may be against the Mangawhai proposal, at any rate, and the water might better serve residential demand at Bream Bay, Mai added.
Another refinery water source is the Pukekauri dam, built on land taken from Māori in the 60s. It was never needed but the struggle to get that land back continues.
Juliane Chetham said resources have been harvested to suit the refinery, which set the precedent for heavy industrial use of the land.
But iwi did not get a vote when shareholders opted to stop refining, she said.
The company had engaged iwi but "there has been certainly very low interest to date from government ministries and agencies".
"If the Crown would come to the party and really get to the bottom of this Māori rights and interests in water, we... wouldn't be in this difficult position."
She contrasted the speed and scale of change, with the lack of comprehensive, concrete plans.
A 'recovery group' of councils, officials, the company and unions has met a half dozen times.
Mai expressed confidence in it, as did Labour MP for Whangārei Emily Henderson.
"We, as the local stakeholders, are identifying options for investigation, including biofuels and the like," said Henderson; iwi were engaged, she added in a statement.
The MP refused to be interviewed.
Workers and iwi remain sceptical any action will come in time to re-employ scores of redundant staff and contractors.
Official documents released under the OIA show a lot of ideas going to and fro.
Refining NZ told the government a year ago it hoped to re-use its skilled workforce.
Refinery head Naomi James told Energy Minister Megan Woods after a July 2020 meeting: "I was also grateful for the action-orientated approach you took to the need for a planned transition."
These also cite barriers - setting up new biofuel and hydrogen schemes depend on "very low-cost renewable electricity", the company said.
And there is no way back: "We do not see a full restart of the refinery as a realistic scenario."
To Chetham and Norris, it appears ad hoc.
Te Parawhau has the added complication that it is still waiting for a Waitangi Tribunal ruling on its claims.
"None of us have had any ruling... but the local government authorities are still going on like it's business as usual," Norris said.
"But that's happened since 1840.
"Sadly, we are used to fighting. Because we have everyone wanting to come and take all our crumbs."
The kuia still hopes for development to benefit everyone.
"You can't give up, so you must always have hope."
