A resource consent application to leave the remains of the Rena wreck on Astrolabe Reef on the basis it will avoid further environmental harm through salvage operations will be made as soon as next week.

Tauranga City Council's City Delivery Committee was yesterday told the ship's owners and insurers intend to lodge the application with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council ahead of the March deadline.

Rena debris continues to be removed from the wreck.

The containership Rena struck the Astrolabe Reef, about 25km off the coast of Tauranga, on October 5, 2011. The ship leaked more than 350 tonnes of heavy fuel oil into the environment and broke up, spilling containers and cargo into the ocean, washing up on beaches across the Bay of Plenty.

BECA technical director of planning Keith Frentz told TCC that lengthy investigations and marine sampling on the reef surrounding the wreck showed more damage than what would be caused by leaving the wreck, minus the accommodation block, there.

He says full removal of the wreck will put environmental recovery of the surrounding area back between five to 10 years if salvors continue cutting the wreck into pieces – potentially disturbing harmful contaminants.

So far 700 tonnes has been removed from the debris field, with further plans being developed to extract the remaining plastic beads from Hold 4 and focussing on aluminium ingots and hazardous inorganic materials.

'There is a lot of stuff down there and not all of it is hazardous or dangerous, so we are focussing on what is hazardous and needs to be removed,” says Keith.

'It cannot return to a pre-Rena state. Assessments show removal effects could be more significant than leaving it there.”

Two contaminants under close scrutiny are a copper clove container assumed to be in Hold 6 – 45 metres below the surface – and TBT paint used in anti-fouling.

Further salvage operations removing sections of the wreck, following last week's 300 tonne section of the accommodation block, could disrupt the contaminants dispersing them throughout the marine life.

Keith says compared to the 50 hectare reef the wreck is only one hectare, or two per cent, of the entire area and admits it is never going to be restored to its pre-state despite salvors' efforts.

The owner's direction is not to endorse the wreck becoming a dive site but rather this would be a potential by-product of leaving the wreck there.

Once the resource consent is lodged an extended public submissions' process of 40 days, compared the typical 20, will take place between May and June. It will then go before the Environment Court.

Motiti Island hapu is continuing to fight to have their claim for full removal resolved this month. Ngai Te Hapu Incorporated Society lodged the Treaty claim under the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 last May.

A dive survey of the wreck and surrounding reef is undertaken.

An example of debris still to be removed from the wreck.