Auckland's proposed Dome Valley landfill could spark rahui

Thursday, 6 June 2019

Dome Valley locals claim sticking a massive landfill between their 'fragile' forested hills is akin to playing Russian roulette with the area's waterways.

Local opposition is growing to Waste Management's proposed landfill in the Dome Valley, north Auckland. (Video first published in July 2020)

The proposed tip, 70km north of Auckland's SkyTower, could become a major dumping ground for the supercity over the next 40 years.

Waste Management purchased the land in 2018 and lodged a resource consent application with Auckland Council last Friday. The Chinese-owned company promises its new dump would be both environmentally sound and necessary for a growing Auckland.

But the valley's iwi and landowners worry any breach in the dump's lining could spill poisons into the Hoteo River. The Hoteo empties into the already beleaguered Kaipara Harbour, where sedimentation plays havoc with marine life. On Sunday locals will cast votes on whether a rahui should be imposed on the landfill's site.

Dome Valley farmer Barry Rose, a retired cop, worries about leachate escaping the landfill and polluting waterways.

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The proposed site for the Auckland Regional Landfill is in secluded pine forest surrounded by farmland, one kilometre from the nearest house.

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If the council grants Waste Management go-ahead, the so-called Auckland Regional Landfill (ADL) would take over from the Redvale Landfill – expected to shut in about eight years' time – and operate on a 35 year resource consent.

ADL's proposed site is currently commercial forest and pasture. The pine-clad valley set to be filled with Aucklanders' waste is two kilometres from the river and one kilometre from the nearest house.

Waste Management has said the landfill would bring jobs and electricity to the Dome Valley community (Redvale produces enough renewable energy to power 12,000 houses).

But trucks heading to the site would also further congest what is already one of the deadliest roads in the North Island. Waste Management has said hundreds of trucks and lighter vehicles would make return trips along SH1 from the landfill each day, if the project went ahead.

Some Dome Valley locals are vehemently against Chinese-owned Waste Management's landfill proposed for their area.

That – along with the environmental uncertainties of landfills in general – has locals worried.

'TOO MANY UNKNOWNS'

Retired police officer Barry Rose has 12 acres one paddock over from a forest block bought by Waste Management. It is steep land, studded with pouriri groves full of tui and woodpigeons.

Rose, 71, learned about the proposed landfill in November last year. He said a representative from Waste Management told him he might be able to smell it from his property in certain winds.

Barry Rose and his dog Bonnie looking over the fence to Waste Management's land, purchased to make the new landfill.

His concern, however, was what would happen if the landfill's liner ripped and spilled leachate into tributaries fanned across its site. Or if its settlement ponds overflowed during heavy rain, as his own dam did every year.

'They don't call it Spring Hill for nothing,' Rose said.

'The area up there's absolutely chokablok full of tributaries and the dump is quite high up. If anything goes wrong … well, it'll flow straight down hill into the Hoteo River.'

Protest signs dot SH1 as it winds through Dome Valley.

Waste Management's plan for the ARL was in fact for stormwater to drain into the Hoteo, but only after being filtered by a series of dams and wetlands.

Dome Valley is a high rainfall area with an unstable soil type – known as 'Onerahi Chaos' – prone to landslides, Rose said. Slippage risks meant farmers kept cattle off the steeper country and houses had to be reinforced with deep concrete pillars.

Rose said he was alarmed such a hefty development was being planned for the 'fragile land'. He had a long list of precedents for mishap; the Waikato's largest landfill, not run by Waste Management, caught fire in March and swamped houses with acrid smoke, for instance.

Around the same time, extreme weather in Westland spread rubbish and toxins from a decommissioned dump beside the Fox River over the region's pristine beaches.

If the Hoteo did get contaminated, its resident longfin eels, freshwater crayfish, and mullet would suffer – and so would the snapper at its mouth in the Kaipara, said Rose. He was also concerned about the impact a dump's associated vermin would have on the area's native birds.

Mikaera Miru believed a rahui is 'the right thing by the Maori perspective' to halt the landfill's development and protect the Kaipara Harbour from the unlikely event of leachate making its way into waterways.

Rats have been a growing menace in recent years; Rose said locals waged war on the rodents when woodpigeon numbers visibly dropped. He feared the rats 'would just breed like blinkin' flies' at the landfill and be impossible to control with traps.

'Waste Management can't reassure us that nothing will ever go wrong, so for us there's just too many unknowns,' said Rose.

Waste Management's managing director Tom Nickels said the company had included a thorough environmental assessment of Dome Valley and the ADL's impact on it in last week's application to the council.

He said the dump's liner would be designed to last 'for hundreds of years'. Leachate would be continuously drained and treated throughout the landfill's operating life, then for a further 35 years.

Asked if he could guarantee the liner would never rupture, Nickles declined to comment.

CALLS FOR A RAHUI

Mikaera Miru is a Māori liaison for the Fight the Tip Committee, which held its first public meeting on February 5 and is vehemently opposed to the proposed landfill. The group, including representatives from five local iwi, decided a rahui was a possible option to protect the ADL's proposed site from development.

At a hui scheduled for Sunday, in Wellsford, the group will vote on whether to declare a rahui – a prohibition of activity – over the site. Miru acknowledged it was a contentious measure that did not have everyone's full support.

He personally believed it was the right call 'from the Māori perspective'.

'It's part of our tikanga. You always look after your resources and that includes our waterways.'

Miru said Waste Management's reassurance that the landfill liner would stay viable for hundreds of years was arbitrary.

'There is no time frame that would satisfy because it's just inappropriate to have these landfills full stop,' he said.

'The lining will not last forever. We're just posting our rubbish to our children and mokos.'

Neither Auckland Council nor Waste Management would comment on whether they would obey a rahui, should it get the vote.

Miru said that 'declaring this rahui is where the battle starts'.

RESOURCE CONSENT APPLICATION

In its consent application, Waste Management said it planned to tackle concerns over increased traffic by installing a roundabout on SH1 near the landfill's entrance.

It admitted 'some queues of slow moving or stationary vehicles' on SH1 approaching the roundabout in the landfill's first year, but anticipated delays would be no more than 10 seconds per vehicle with quickly dissipated queues.

Loose sediment into the Hōteo River and Kaipara Harbour would be managed by retention ponds to capture soil disturbed by rain, decanting earth bunds to give sediment in run-off a place to settle before it drained and silt fences along the perimeter of the work area.

Seven species of native fish were identified on site, including long-fin eel, inanga and freshwater mussels, which under Department of Conservation standards were 'at risk-declining'. The banded kokopu was also found and prone to the effects of suspended sediment.

Threatened bird species within the wetlands were expected to be vulnerable to changes in hydrology and sedimentation.

A separation distance of more than 1km between the landfill and the nearest residential dwellings would reduce effects of unplanned emissions. External odour effects would be 'less than minor'.

Odour neutralising sprays were ideal for managing existing odours and controls relating to the placement of waste, landfill cover and gas collection system would ensure 'low risk of unplanned odour events that would cause offsite effects'.

However, it was impossible to fully eliminate 'intrinsically offensive' landfill odours. At a community meeting following notification of the landfill proposal, one woman described her experience living near a landfill as 'horrible'.