‘Ecologically significant’ river at risk as National Steel fails to follow council orders

Wednesday, 12 July 2023

National Steel was told to apply for resource consent or stop work which discharge contaminants to land. So far, it’s done neither.

It has been 19 months since scrap metal yard National Steel was told to apply for consent or stop operating, so far it’s done neither.

Woolston residents say they are losing faith that the site — situated along the Ōpāwaho/Heathcote River — will be held accountable by Environment Canterbury (Ecan) which monitors it.

Now they want Christchurch City Council to take action.

Since opening around 2018, the yard became known for its tall towers of scrapped cars, stacked 12-15m high.

Those stacks threatened the safety of residents when they were torched in August, under suspicious circumstances.

Nearby residents, including city councillor Yani Johanson, said concerns about the safety risk and environmental impacts had been shared with the regional and city councils for years, but little had changed.

National Steel’s industrial activity was allowed to happen along the river without permission because of the city council’s “insufficient” district plan, Johanson said.

On August 5 2021, Ecan enforcement officers visited the site to investigate potential rule breaches.

Jarrad Smith, the area manager for National Steel, told an officer it had “several resource consents” which authorised the activity.

It took until November 2021 for an enforcement officer to check the claim, which was inaccurate.

The Woolston scrap yard is still home to piles of burnt out cars, nearly a year after it was torched under suspicious circumstances.

A month later the company was told it needed to apply for resource consent, or permanently stop work which led to the discharge of contaminants.

That timeline became part of an August 9, 2022, abatement notice — a year after the initial site visit.

The notice ordered National Steel to stop discharging contaminants to land which could enter groundwater.

As of July 10 2023, National Steel had not submitted the application, but the Press understands it intends to. The firm did not respond to requests for comment.

Paul McMahon, who lives in the area and chairs the Waihoro Spreydon-Cashmere-Heathcote Community Board, took a photo of what appeared to be a breach of the council’s notice on June 29, reporting it the next day.

A resident recently reported what appeared to be a breach of environmental rules, but the regional council said the incident was considered unintentional.

He observed water flowing from a pile of scrap metal at the site, where it met a drain or hose at the gate and proceeded to enter the gutters.

He was concerned contaminants could end up in the river, considering what was stored on site.

Johannes Welsch, zone delivery manager for Environment Canterbury, said because they received the photo a day after it was taken, enforcement officers did not visit the site in person.

Welsch said the yard’s site manager later told the council the discharge was from a broken pipe, therefore, the council was satisfied the water was clean and no further action was required.

This surprised McMahon, who questioned if the council’s enforcement team had enough resources to respond to potential breaches quickly enough.

Phil Campbell, who lives next to the yard, said every time it rained there was a risk of contaminants entering the river.

After years of reporting concerns to the city council, he had “no faith” in it or the regional council to act.

There were community groups, business leaders from the Tannery and individual families like Campbell’s who cared about the health of the river, planting trees or picking up litter when they could, he said.

But he felt those efforts were in vain if National Steel wasn’t facing consequences.

“That’s what annoys me,” he said.

McMahon said “there’s a sense that because [Woolston] is an old working class community, ‘that’s just the way it is’.”

Cr Johanson, who also lives nearby, still believed the city council could help.

National Steel was allowed to operate without permission so close to the river and peoples’ homes because of “insufficient” zoning rules in the district plan, he said, but the council could tighten those rules if it wanted to.

Christchurch City Council staff were tasked with finding improvements in August 2021, but that report had not yet made it to the council table.

“It needs to happen and it needs to happen as a priority,” Johanson said.

“The Ōpāwaho/Heathcote river is a site of ecological significance. They [council] absolutely need to review the protections they’ve got around that.”

Welsch said the regional council expected to receive a resource consent application from National Steel “relatively soon”.

In the meantime, Welsch said the council had followed up with National Steel on the measures it wastaking to manage discharge from its operations, including decreasing the volume of steel and cars stored on site.