Defence force and volunteers ramp up Fox River clean up efforts
Thursday, 25 July 2019
About 135,000 kilograms of rubbish has been cleared from around a West Coast river after a storm exposed an old landfill four months ago.
Department of Conservation (DOC) operation Tidy Fox incident controller Owen Kilgour said good progress was being made on the clean up, with high numbers of volunteers and help from the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF).
'We are still calling for volunteers for the weeks to come. The help of volunteers is crucial to getting this work done, and we want to get as many volunteers as possible while the NZDF is here until the middle of August,' he said.
As of Wednesday, 1542 volunteer days had been completed by an average of 100 people a day, and more than 270 large wool bags had been filled with about 135,000kg of rubbish.
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Kilgour said volunteers had cleared just over 50 per cent of the 389 hectares making up zone 1, and the NZDF started work in zone 2 on Wednesday. Zone 2 covers 881ha of riverbed and zone 3 covers 875ha of coastline from Karangarua to Okarito.
New Zealand Army driver Private Nathan Connell said the sight of plastic waste entangled with washed-up logs or buried under rocks and silt in Fox River was heart-breaking for West Coast locals like him.
While growing up in Dobson, a town of about 600 on the banks of the Grey River, Connell spent school holidays with his family exploring the West Coast's untamed native forests, rivers and glaciers.
'It was quite a shock to hear about the rubbish contamination of Fox River. Seeing it first-hand made me really sad,' said Connell, who is one of the NZDF personnel helping the Fox River rubbish spill clean-up.
He drives a Pinzgauer light operational all-terrain vehicle to transport DOC staff and volunteers to work sites along Fox River each day, and picks up bags of rubbish filled by the volunteers.
'I was eager to come home and give a hand. It's good to help out,' he said.
Heavy rain the previous week had made the tracks leading to the Fox River work sites muddy and difficult for normal vehicles to access.
'The terrain is quite rough but with the Pinzgauer we have been able to take the volunteers quickly to where they need to be,' Connell said.
Major Steven Jackson said 55 NZDF staff were currently stationed at Fox River for the clean up, and another 15 would arrive by the end of the week.
They visited Fox Glacier school on Wednesday to show pupils their vehicles and talk about the operation.
'It's going well. We've had our second full day out picking and we are providing logistic support as well. The civilian volunteers are picking close to the dump site and we are working further down stream and working our way to the coast.'
Most of the rubbish was concentrated close to the dump site. The volunteers were covering the more accessible areas, while the NZDF staff would head to harder to reach areas and remove larger items like car bodies, Jackson said.
People can sign up to volunteer at www.doc.govt.nz/operation-tidy-fox-volunteer