North Shore City rubbishes landfill application

The North Shore City Council is fighting to stop a landfill development on the city's doorstep which it fears would seriously pollute the Okura estuary.

At their strategy and finance committee meeting yesterday (June 17), councillors were concerned about plans to reactivate a 'cleanfill' on the corner of Lonely Track and East Coast Roads in neighbouring Rodney District.

North Shore City has now formally lodged a submission opposing a resource consent application by Resonant Holdings to dump 140,000 cubic metres of 'cleanfill' rubbish on the site - known as the Wallace Landfill - over the next five years. Cleanfill materials include fibrolite, rock, plaster/clay products, soil and glass.

The former Rodney County Council had approved use of the site for cleanfill purposes back in 1987.

Committee chairperson, Tony Holman, says the proposed cleanfill site drains to the Okura estuary - part of the protected Okura-Long Bay marine reserve.

"Clearly this is a ecologically sensitive area and we don't need the runoff from the diggers and rubbish polluting the estuary," he says.

Councillor Holman points to the recent decision of the Environment Court which safeguards the rural character of the area and severely limits earthworks.

"The flow on effects of the major excavation and dumping will be, quite literally, to further muddy the coastal waters. We had the experts at NIWA measure the impact of existing cleanfills in the Okura area and they found that these contributed 16 per cent of the sediment entering the estuary.

"The level of earthworks required for the proposed cleanfill would, in our view, exceed the limits set by the NIWA modelling work and backed by the recent Court ruling.

"To grant consent to this proposal sends completely the wrong message to landowners who are being told that the environment is sensitive and earthworks must be strictly controlled.

"At North Shore City, our position is clear: we do not want any more dumps in Okura and will fight this and any other landfill application that threatens the environment," Tony Holman says.

Earlier this week, the Auckland Regional Council tipped off North Shore City that a second application for a cleanfill in Rodney had been received although not yet officially lodged with the district council.

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