Slip debris covers Reavers Lane in Queenstown after heavy rains in September 2023. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Three companies have been ordered to pay more than half-a-million dollars combined for their role in a landslip that swamped a Queenstown street, forcing dozens to evacuate.
Skyline Enterprises, Naylor Love Central Otago Limited and Wilsons Contractors Limited pleaded guilty to charges, brought by the Queenstown-Lakes District Council (QLDC) for alleged breaches of the Resource Management Act (RMA).
The companies were sentenced during a lengthy hearing in the Christchurch District Court on Friday.
The resort town was hammered by torrential rain on 22 September 2023, with a landslip spilling down and inundating Reavers Lane below Bob's Peak.
Forty-one people had to be evacuated from their homes on the night, and later 10 homes were red-stickered and two yellow-stickered.
The breaches centred around the management, placement and size of a stockpile during earthworks, commissioned by Skyline, at Bob's Peak, the court heard.
Lawyer for the QLDC David Collins said it was the "most serious RMA case the council had ever prosecuted".
Judge John Hasson said the offending was driven by "commercial imperatives" as contractors - in the months prior to the weather event - scrambled to finish planned works on time.
Residents of Reavers Lane shovel debris into a wheelbarrow after the Reavers Lane landslip. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Naylor Love, who sub-contracted Wilsons to stockpile excavated spoil, was seen as the biggest culprit of the three defendants "by quite some margin".
The stockpile was also outside Skyline's leased area within the reserve, the court heard.
"Naylor Love did not put in place any sediment and erosion controls for the ... obvious risk of spoil or sediment escaping and heading downhill," Hasson said.
"Hence, in addition to being outside the consented area and Skyline's lease area, it was also in breach of a number of the other conditions of Skyline's resource consents."
In his sentencing remarks, Hasson said all three companies had demonstrated highly careless behaviour.
"No doubt each of the defendants will reflect that, in a situation of engineering difficulty, they chose commercial expediency over the safety and other interests of the Queenstown community. That is appalling," he said.
"Different, albeit very costly and inconvenient choices could and should have been made. That demands a sentencing outcome that denounces and deters."
Cars buried by slip debris in Reavers Lane, Queenstown Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
A victim impact statement by long-time Reamers Lane resident, Sonja Beattie, was read out to the court.
"The night of the 22nd of September 2023, without any warning or alerts, a huge landslip came down, wiping out the house above, covering their car and inundating Reamers Lane. The waters flowed onto my property and flowed into my garage, taking out some curb and drenching all my winter wood stored under the garage," she said.
A friend who was staying with her at the time returned to Te Anau out of fear of further landslides, the court heard.
Beattie said she felt her property had been devalued.
"Now, whenever there is heavy rain, I have concerns that this is going to happen again. I had no warning about this event last time, and my friends even ask now if my house is safe to stay in."
Skyline Enterprises was fined $130,000, Naylor Love $154,000 and Wilson $61,600.
As part of an enforcement order, further costs of over $200,000 incurred by the QLDC were to be covered by all three companies (Skyline $78,300, Naylor Love $88,400 and Wilsons $34,000).
Emotional reparation payments totalling $12,000 were also to be paid to Beattie by the companies.
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