Wainuiomata cleanfill could create an 'environmental disaster' like Fox River
Monday, 21 October 2019
Wainuiomata residents are concerned a cleanfill will cause an 'environmental disaster' similar to the Fox River on the West Coast.
In March the Fox River undermined an old landfill spilling 135,000 kilograms of rubbish on to nearby beaches resulting in a massive clean-up.
The Hutt City Council says demand for cleanfill sites has reached record levels and expanding the Wainuiomata site is its only option.
It wants Resource Consent to expand the site, which at one point was due to close in 2017.
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Angry locals claim plastic bottles, household waste, chemical containers and tyres have been dumped in the cleanfill, next to the Wainuiomata River.
The cleanfill is on a former waste water treatment plant site, which was decommissioned in 2008.
Instead of expanding it, locals want it closed and planted out in natives.
The council appears to be caught in a difficult situation as demand for cleanfills increases due to a building boom in Lower Hutt.
In November 2018 the then council chief executive Tony Stallinger wrote to Sally-ann Moffat in response to her concerns about the way the council operated the cleanfill.
Moffat, along with other neighbours, wanted to know why the council had kept it open despite saying it would close in 2017.
Stallinger said the number of houses being built in Wainuiomata had grown by '1000 per cent' and was expected to keep increasing.
The council had a 'responsibility to support this growth given the current housing shortage', he said.
'This is especially so when a large proportion of these houses are planned to be constructed with social motives rather than pure profit.'
The 'only current option' for cleanfill created by new housing, was Wainuiomata, he said.
That argument did not go down well with neighbours who formed a Givealittle page to raise funds to fight the expansion and who are now questioning the accuracy of council flood data.
Part of the area the council now wants to use was previously deemed a flood risk by the regional council.
Flood data had been 'remodelled' by the regional council and the city council now believes the land can safely be used for cleanfill.
Moffat rejected the claim that the area would not flood and said what happened in the Fox River could happen in Wainuiomata.
'They cannot ignore the fact that a one-in-100-year flood can and will expose Wainuiomata to an environmental disaster.'
Neighbours Jed Bircham and Kourtney Ross said they had been left in limbo after purchasing their property in 2016.
They believed the cleanfill was about to close and be planted out in native bush.
Instead, they now have to live with an operation that made it difficult to enjoy their property.
'From 7.30am to 5pm every day the noise is overwhelming to the point where we can even hear the workers' conversations.'
Selling their property would now be 'next to impossible' because of the view and the noise.
Newly elected mayor Campbell Barry has called for an urgent report and is 'keen' to find out what other options there are for cleanfill in the city.
* The consent is being heard by independent commissioner Robert Schofield.