Nelson mayor Nick Smith and Environment Minister Penny Simmonds at Tāhunanui Beach in Nelson. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
- Government announces $30m "contaminated sites and vulnerable landfills" fund to help councils and landowners clean up sites at risk of being affected by severe weather
- Tāhunanui Beach, Little Tahiti Landfill, Ocean Beach Landfill, Te Raekaihau Point Landfill and Peel Forest Landfill will receive funding first
- In Nelson, sawdust from a local timber mill used as fill for a car park was exposed by erosion in 2022 and later found to contain heavy metals including arsenic, chromium, copper and boron
The government has announced a contaminated sites and vulnerable landfills fund to help councils and landowners clean up sites vulnerable to the effects of severe weather.
Environment Minister Penny Simmonds announced the new fund in Nelson on Tuesday - with the Tāhunanui Beach remediation among the first projects to receive funding and $3.44 million going towards the clean-up of contaminated sawdust and sand from the beach.
The material became exposed by erosion in 2022 and testing last May revealed the sawdust was contaminated with arsenic and other chemicals, after waste from a timber mill was used as fill for a raised car park in the 1960s.
The full extent of the contamination was revealed after further investigation last July and it was expected 10,000 cubic metres of sawdust and sand would need to be dug out and disposed of.
Environment Minister Penny Simmonds. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
"We've got sites like this all over the country and we think it's important to be helping the local councils to remediate them," Simmonds said.
Simmonds said the government wanted to work proactively with sites prone to erosion, to prevent a repeat of what happened during severe weather in 2019 at Fox River on the West Coast, when a storm exposed an old landfill on the river banks, washing thousands of kilograms of rubbish out to sea and affecting around 50 kilometres of coastline.
The site took three years to remediate at a cost of more than $3m.
"It becomes much more expensive when we are trying to do something after the fact, that's why we really want to get in and get hold of these sites before they cause an environmental and health risk to people."
In the case of Tāhunanui, she said erosion had already occurred and one severe weather event could have disastrous results.
The fund of $30m a year was aimed at assisting councils and landowners to share the cost of fixing vulnerable landfills and contaminated areas before problems arose.
Simmonds said there were hundreds of sites across the country and the government had launched a tool for councils to assess the extent of contamination at any given site.
She said the council was working at pace to ensure the remediation was complete before summer, so people could continue to enjoy the "absolutely pristine and marvellous iconic beach".
The fenced off area where sawmill waste was used as infill in the 1960s, which has now been exposed by erosion. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
The clean-up was estimated to cost $4.89m - with three quarters funded by government. The Nelson City Council would spend another $300,000 on a new car park and planting in the remediated area. It comes on top of government funding of $134,000 to investigate the extent of the contamination.
Other sites to receive funding are the Little Tahiti Landfill in Milford Sound, Ocean Beach Landfill near Bluff, Te Raekaihau Point Landfill near Wellington, and Peel Forest Landfill in the Timaru district.
Mayor Nick Smith said the government grant had reduced the burden on ratepayers, whose contribution had been reduced to $1.15m.
When the sawdust was first exposed by erosion at the beach in 2022, it was thought the wood waste was untreated, but further testing revealed the presence of heavy metals, with arsenic above the safe recreational health standards with other elements above the ecological safe limits.
"Tāhunanui Beach is no place for contaminants like arsenic, chromium, copper, boron and dioxins," Smith said.
He said the city was proud of its beach, which had made TripAdvisor's Top 10 Beaches in the world list, two years in a row.
Tāhunanui Beach. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
"It's a sad commentary on a previous era, that gorgeous beaches and areas adjacent to rivers were seen as wastelands and dump sites. We are not the only community to have this problem and it has really given us the confidence, knowing the government was prepared to assist, to do the right thing and fix this up so that our beach can be restored."
He said the region was well aware of the disastrous contamination of the former Fruitgrowers Chemical Company site in Māpua, and the clean-up that went "horribly wrong" and resulted in a critical report from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.
Nelson mayor Nick Smith. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
"I have been very nervous for the last 18 months that if we had a huge storm event, we could have lost half that material and had it distributed across Tāhunanui Beach and into the Waimea Estuary.
"These things aren't straightforward and you always want to make sure that you are managing the contaminants in a responsible way."
Smith said the biggest portion of the project cost - was the cost to dump the contaminated material.
The remediation will continue over the next eight weeks, with 10,000 cubic metres of waste removed from the site and taken to the York Valley landfill.
