Wellington's native birds may have to make way for the noise, pests and smell of a larger landfill

Thursday, 23 July 2020

Wellington’s Southern Landfill is reaching its brink and will be full in about three years.

A larger landfill proposed for Wellington will be just 400 metres from the city’s prized native bird sanctuary, Zealandia.

At 2.5 million cubic metres, there’s concern the tip will replace serene native bird habitat with noise, smell and rats.

Zealandia chief executive Paul Atkins said he wants to see decisions that ensure “bird biodiversity is increasing and not declining”.

Kaka are one of the bird species which now forage widely beyond the Zealandia fence.

“When we look towards our future and how we live with nature in an urban environment, we want to be proud of our decisions,” he said.

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The extension (green) would take it to within 400 metres of Zealandia's fence, shown in the lower part of the image.

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Zealandia is in a number of conversations with council representatives about the landfill, he said.

A tuatara on Zealandia’s pest-proof fence.

Zealandia Centre for People and Nature director Dr Danielle Shanahan said land set to become landfill was home to birds as well as lizards and other precious wildlife.

Rats and predators at the landfill, just beyond the sanctuary fence, would also pose a risk to the birds.

“Landfills provide unlimited food and resources for these introduced species, and are a very difficult area to trap in,” Shanahan said.

The extended landfill would increase the risk of predators entering the sanctuary, she said.

“Survival for native animals that leave the sanctuary will be even more difficult.”

The smell and litter blowing into the sanctuary was also a concern, Shanahan said.

The council is “not in the business of maxmising waste”, waste operations manager Emily Taylor-Hall says.

The extension would likely affect native birds which had made the area home after leaving Zealandia, such as in 2018 when the first tīeke nest in over 100 years was recorded on the mainland.

Zealandia has been so successful at reintroducing native birds to Wellington most residents can spot kaka or tūī in their backyards – but that wasn’t the case 10 years ago.

The Southern Landfill is reaching its brink and will be full in about three years.

Water treatment sludge is mixed with waste at the landfill, but some say that’s an incentive to attract more rubbish.

The draft concept design for the extension is almost twice the size of the current landfill.

Council waste operations manager Emily Taylor-Hall said they intended to engage directly with Zealandia to find a mutually-agreeable strategy.

Public feedback opposed waste sent to landfill, but Taylor-Hall said there wasn’t a cost-effective alternative.

The council was “not in the business of maximising waste”, she said.

The draft concept design for the extension (green) almost doubles the size of the existing landfill.

“The primary regional target is to reduce waste sent to landfills by one third, but we need to get the sludge out of the landfill first.”

The sewage sludge from Wellington Water’s water treatment is mixed with rubbish at the landfill. About 15,800 tonnes of sludge is buried at the Southern Landfill each year.

However, Taylor-Hall said an alternative facility for sludge would be several years away.

Eugene Doyle of the Ōwhiro Bay Residents Association (OBRA) has concerns about leachate escaping from landfill operation, which turned the Owhiro Stream bright orange last month.

“Currently, Wellington City Council dumps its s--- in to the Southern Landfill on Happy Valley Rd and mixes it with rubbish.

“That’s how primitive our sewerage systems are in Wellington.”

OBRA landfill lead Angela Wilson said the extension would encourage rats close to Zealandia, wind-borne rubbish, and increase the risk of pollution in the runoff to the stream and the Taputeranga Marine Reserve.

“Don’t double the dump” was OBRA’s message, and they call the landfill plan “a third-world solution” to the city’s waste issues.

The association wrote to the council calling for the extension resource consent to be delayed until decisions on the sewage sludge were made.

The present system mixes four parts of rubbish with one part sewage.

“If this requires mixing of 4:1 to achieve site stability etc, it creates an incentive to attract at least 63,200 tonnes of waste annually,” their letter says.

“The Southern Landfill and its actual and potential environmental effects on our community, including the school and kindergarten, is of acute concern to us.”

Taylor-Hall said the association raised “some specific and complex concerns”, to which they were in the process of responding.

THE EXTENSION PLAN

- The draft design of the extension is 2.5 million cubic metres – approximately 25 years of capacity at current filing rates.

- The current landfill will be between 3 and 3.3 million cubic metres when it’s entirely filled.

- The existing landfill will likely reach capacity as early as 2023.

- Waste from Wellington is expected to increase.

- The council hopes to reduce the amount sent to landfill 30 per cent by 2026.

- A resource consent for the extension will be lodged this year.

- The design is being finalised.