Photo: RNZ / Eleisha Foon An independent hearing commissioner is considering the renewal. The public cannot make submissions, because they were able to do so as part of the original consent process. A panel, including a rural GP and an epidemiologist [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/438881/researcher-to-look-at-link-between-nitrates-in-drinking-water-and-bowel-cancer-rates who has researched the links between nitrates and bowel cancer], spoke about health and environmental risks at the meeting a Burnside High School in Christchurch. Many in the audience had travelled from Ashburton, where one man said this had been an issue he had been fighting for since the 1970s. He had now retired but said this would make a difference for future generations.