1 May 2013

Green Party welcomes Tui mine clean-up

The Green Party is pleased with the success of the Tui mine clean-up, but says it a costly lesson of what happens if producers of pollution are not held responsible for the mess they leave behind.

The Green Party and the National Party agreed to include toxic site management work in their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2011, which also includes the successful home insulation scheme, the New Zealand Cycleway, natural health products legislation, and a pilot scheme to better protect forests and wildlife from pests.

“It is fantastic the Tui Mine is cleaned up. The Green Party is proud of the role we have played, working with the Government, to make this major clean-up a priority,” said Green Party toxics spokesperson Catherine Delahunty.

Ms Delahunty and Environment Minister Amy Adams today attended a closing ceremony at Tui Mine at Te Aroha to mark the successful conclusion of the five-year project.

“It is great that the restoration work has occurred, particularly the stabilisation of the tailings dump, but it is important to know that Mt Te Aroha will always be scarred by this relatively small abandoned mine and we need to learn lessons from that,” said Ms Delahunty.

“There is ongoing work at Tui. The mine will always need monitoring and the reapplication of lime to the toxic leachate from underground workings; unfortunately this contaminated site will always be a cost to citizens and ratepayers.

“It is important that we learn the lessons of Tui so that the environmental impact and cost to taxpayers of contaminated sites is eliminated.

“All mining can leave a permanent impact on the environment. We are worried that history will repeat itself if there is a mass expansion of mining coupled with weakening of environment legislation.

“One lesson from Tui is that historic gold mining on the Coromandel is still costing us and the last thing we need is any more mining of these significant areas.”

ENDS

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