Many Taupo people are learning for the first time the full extent of the possible risk of future subsidence in the town and its environs because of geothermal extraction, the Contact Energy consents hearing has been told.
Thursday, May 27th 2004, 3:31AM
by The Landlord
Commissioners were questioning the assumptions that property prices would suffer as a result of uncertainty over where subsidence could occur in the future, and asked whether it was not just a matter of spreading "doom and gloom".
However, Phillip Green, counsel representing the Taupo District Council, said the full extent of information had not been made available to the media previously.
"This hearing is the first time the media has ever been exposed to the full story."
Mr Green said the council had been very conservative about the release of information, because of a fear of creating a ?doom and gloom? in the town.
He indicated that when the SKM report on subsidence in Crown/ Invergarry Rd first became available, the media received prepared material and there was "a brief burst of publicity".
