'Significant' work still to do on Fox River cleanup

Friday, 5 July 2019

Volunteers have cleared 36 rugby fields worth of rubbish exposed by a storm on the West Coast, but there is still a lot of work left to do.

Rubbish has been cleared from 25 hectares of the Fox River, but there is still 2091ha left to clear.

Volunteers and the Department of Conservation (DOC) are working to remove rubbish scattered across about 75 kilometres of West Coast beaches and riverbed after torrential rainfall and flooding exposed a disused landfill at Fox River in late March.

Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage with DOC staff and volunteers cleaning up after the Fox River rubbish disaster.

DOC took over the management of the cleanup after the Westland District Council said it could not pledge anymore than the $600,000 it had already spent up to the end of May.

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More volunteers are needed to clean up rubbish from formerly pristine West Coast beaches and riverbed.

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Operation Tidy Fox incident controller Owen Kilgour said 'significant progress' had been made since DOC took over the clean up operation on June 19.

About 7 per cent of the riverbed in zone one had been cleared. Three zones needed to be cleared and zone one was the worst affected area. It ran from the State Highway 6 bridge over the Fox River to about 5km downstream.

'We need to clear the rubbish from 335ha within this zone as well as another two zones totalling 1756ha. It's estimated 5500 tonnes of rubbish flowed out of the Fox Glacier landfill.

More volunteers were needed to help and DOC would cover accommodation, lunches and dinners, meaning volunteers needed to pay only for their transport and breakfast.

'We need all the help we can get to try and clear as much as possible before the spring rains arrive and the weather worsens,' he said.

Kilgour said he was confident local accommodation providers could house the large number of volunteers needed. The Government had provided $450,000 to DOC for Operation Tidy Fox, on top of the $300,000 given to the Westland District Council.

Conservation Minister and Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage met with DOC staff leading the cleanup and volunteers in Fox Glacier on Thursday.

'It was great to be able to thank the committed departmental staff and a big team of volunteers in person. The volunteers were in great spirits after a working in the riverbed on a magnificent West Coast day extracting rubbish from logjams of trees swept down by the flood,' she said.

'I was impressed DOC's clear plan for Operation Tidy Fox … The area has been divided into cells and DOC is organising equipment and volunteers to methodically work on these areas.'

The New Zealand Defence Force will provide support for four weeks from the end of July.

Volunteers can help restore the Fox River by signing up on DOC's website.