Workers ‘forced to evacuate’ as Auckland businessman fronts up over man-made mountain

Thursday, 10 October 2024

A massive earth pile in East Tamaki has halted nearby businesses and triggered legal battles. The council says only stabilization work is allowed, while the site’s operator faces liquidation action. Dust issues have also impacted locals.

A man-made mountain of earth in East Tamaki has forced one neighbouring business to evacuate staff and move out at its own expense.

Eco Earth NZ’s Gareth Williams says he was trying to remediate his work site, but “walked away” after facing liquidation action.

Williams told Stuff the ordeal has been extremely stressful - “It’s caused me nearly to have a heart attack.”

Aucklander Gareth Williams had a very simple business idea - recycling topsoil.

Instead, he finds himself at the centre of a council investigation and a legal battle linked to an enormous, man-made mountain of earth on an East Tamaki site operated by his company, Eco Earth NZ.

Locals are concerned - one emailed saying “the pile towers over the gas station” operated by Mobil next door. Another neighbouring business has told Stuff the “severe risk” posed to staff and customers has forced it to relocate at its own cost.

Auckland Council has initiated Environment Court proceedings over the issue. An earlier court order estimated the total site was 5,500m2 and the pile at least 15 metres high.

Now, Eco Earth NZ faces liquidation.

Locals say a huge mound of earth, last estimated to be 15m high, is towering over a nearby Mobil station, which has closed part of its premises.

Do you know more? Contact nick.truebridge@stuff.co.nz.

But Stuff wanted Williams’ side of the story.

While he refused an on site interview - “I’m not doing anything like that” - Williams told us he had complied with court orders, and had tried to “rectify the site”.

That was until he found out about the liquidation application filed by his landlord, New Zealand New Oak Property. He also took aim at Stuff’s previous reporting.

“It came to our attention that they were trying to liquidate us and we thought well why are we doing all this? Then your lovely article came out and that was the end of it,” Williams told Stuff.

2 Cheap Cars Chairman Michael Stiassny says the company’s staff were “forced to evacuate” due to the threat posed by the Eco Earth NZ site next door.

“I walked away from it.”

Council’s Acting Compliance Manager, David Pawson, this week told Stuff work at the site is at a standstill after an enforcement order was issued on August 12. Only specific stabilisation works were allowed.

With work stopped, and Williams walking away, what remains is an enormous pile of soil, dotted with concrete.

A man working in a neighbouring car yard told Stuff dust covers the vehicles he’s trying to sell when machinery is operating on the nearby pile.

Next door, 2 Cheap Cars has moved out, with the huge pile of earth visibly bearing down on the site's sole building.

Further along, the local Mobil’s car wash sits disused behind a steel fence blocking site access.

‘FORCED TO EVACUATE’

Under the shadow of the mountain of earth sits a building once used as an office space for 2 Cheap Cars employees and their customers.

The operator of the site, Gareth Williams, says the ordeal “caused me nearly to have a heart attack”.

It now sits abandoned.

Chairman Michael Stiassny told Stuff the company was “forced to evacuate the site”.

“After visiting it and looking at the nature of the neighbouring property it was clear that we believed there was severe risk to our customers, or anyone visiting the site, and our employees,” he said.

2 CheapCars had done its own studies of the “mountain” and “concluded that it was really dangerous”.

“We took immediate steps to move and to set up elsewhere,” Stiassny said,

“That incurred some cost for us but it was the only thing we could do.”

Worksafe was notified about the issue, but Stiassny said the company was “surprised” to be told the matter would not be taken further.

“We just hope that no one is injured in due course as a result of that continuing impact,” he said.

Gareth Williams told Stuff his primary business is producing and recycling top soil. Advertising suggests Eco Earth NZ also offered a tipping site.

Stuff has approached Worksafe for comment.

AUCKLAND COUNCIL SWOOPS

Pawson told Stuff an interim enforcement order, issued back in August, meant works on site had ceased.

The order was made to Eco Earth NZ, Williams himself and the landlord, New Zealand New Oak Property. It states Eco Earth and Williams are responsible for the works on site.

However, Williams told Environment Court Judge Melinda Dickey he and his company were not responsible for the illegal fill and the enforcement orders required work done before he took over the land to be rectified.

In his evidence, geotechnical engineer Andrew Stiles told the court of the potential for “substantial failure to occur with material coming down over the common southern boundary to impact structures on the Mobil Service Station and car yard sites”.

This week, Pawson said Auckland Council still had concerns.

“The council remains concerned that a large quantity of unconsented fill has been brought onto the site and there are stability and discharge issues related to this,” he said.

A hearing for a full enforcement order application, seeking remediation of the site, was heard on Monday.

The enormous man-made mountain sits on the edge of the old Greenmount Landfill. Auckland Council remains concerned about its stability.

Judge Dickey reserved her decision.

“The council is working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible to return to full landfill gas migration monitoring along the affected boundary and to require remediation of the site, through all available legal processes,” Pawson told Stuff.

No work, other than that to stabilise the site, was allowed.

‘IN A DEADLOCK’

Williams told Stuff the business he runs is pretty straight forward -“we produce soil, we recycle topsoil.”

He called the situation at Smales Rd “a deadlock”.

“The council’s ramped up all the abatement notices and everything and basically ceased all work… we’ve been caught in the crossfire,” he said.

Eco Earth NZ had spent “hundreds of thousands of dollars as well as our machines” trying to rectify the site.

“I’ve never run away from the problem,” Williams said.

He also spoke of the stress caused by the mountain of earth

“It’s caused me nearly to have a heart attack,” he said.

“I’ve been in Middlemore.”