Heart-wrenching sight for Operation Tidy Fox volunteers

Friday, 19 July 2019

Volunteers pick up rubbish in Fox River on the West Coast after a flood ripped open the old Fox Glacier landfill in March 2019.

Chris Skelton and Joanne Carroll joined the volunteer army helping to clean up Fox Beach after a storm brought tonnes of garbage washing to shore.

Rubbish strewn for hundreds of kilometres along the West Coast beach makes for a heart wrenching sight for the dozens of volunteers who have shown up.

'You could get down in the dumps about it but you've got to have hope and that's why we're here,' Waimate teacher Linda Schofield said.

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) is helping the Department of Conservation clean up sites along the Fox River.

The normally pristine Fox Beach has been soiled with decades-old human detritus since April, when the Fox River burst its banks.

**READ MORE:

* Marlborough District Council 'on top of' historic landfill sites

* Workers racing the clock at Fox River to save West Coast wildlife and reputation

Volunteers pick up rubbish in Fox River on the West Coast after a flood ripped open the Fox Glacier landfill in March.

Volunteer Grant McDonald picks up rubbish in Fox River on the West Coast after a flood ripped open the Fox Glacier landfill in March.

Volunteers Tom McDermott, from Auckland, Remy Rouyer from California, and Grant McDonald, from the Hawkes Bay pick up rubbish in Fox River on the West Coast after a flood ripped open the Fox Glacier landfill in March.

18072019 Chris Skelton/STUFFVolunteer Paul Collins picks up rubbish in Fox River on the West Coast after a flood ripped open the Fox Glacier landfill in March.

DOC ranger Stephanie Sanson picks up rubbish in Fox River on the West Coast after a flood ripped open the Fox Glacier landfill in March.

* Asbestos, needles found among Fox River waste as efforts ramp up**

This week, nomads, retirees, teachers, and travellers formed a high-vis vested army of Good Samaritans, to pick up, store and carry tonnes of gunk away. A group of eight high school students from Northland's Panguru Area School made the two-day trek down south to join in.

They've paid their own way to be there, and have to provide breakfast, but accommodation in shared rooms in Fox Glacier and lunch and dinner are provided.

It's a race against time. The spring floods that follow a West Coast downpour are feared to come in as little as two months, and could wash the rubbish out to sea.

The efforts of the volunteer army have been boosted by the real army, with the New Zealand Defence Force sending in air support and manpower to reach some of the less accessible areas of the coast.