No more cleanfill to Waiu Street site

Greater Wellington will begin removing material from an area of the Waiu Street cleanfill site in Wainuiomata after tests found it contained levels of contamination above recommended levels for cleanfill.

The Council will no longer use the Waiu Street for disposing cleanfill, and is currently working with Hutt City Council to find alternative locations for the cleanfill.

The Council will also implement further testing procedures at the Waiwhetu project site to ensure that all material is tested prior to leaving the site.

The level of contamination is low, with lead the only guideline to be breached. “Though the levels of contamination are low, our guidelines were breached and this material should not have been deposited at the Waiu Street site,” Chief Executive David Benham said.

The contaminated material came from an area of Waiwhetu Stream being widened and deepened to alleviate flooding and was not from the area where Greater Wellington has removed contaminated sediment from the stream bed.

“When the area was excavated a month ago, contractors told our project staff that they suspected two truckloads of material taken from the area and deposited at Waiu Street could be contaminated.

“In response the Council ring-fenced the specific area in the Waiu Street site where the two loads were dumped and asked contractors to take away that specific fill as well as the surrounding fill to ensure all contamination is removed – equivalent to about 15 truckloads of material,” Mr Benham said.

“Unfortunately this work was not undertaken on time and, following a meeting with local residents on Friday 27 November, we commissioned laboratory tests to confirm the extent of contamination at Waiu Street. We expect to receive those results later this week.

“Due to an error of judgement by one of our staff, neither our senior managers nor Greater Wellington Councillor Prue Lamason or Hutt City Councillor Ray Wallace were aware of the situation at the time of the meeting. This is an issue of major regret and is being attended to internally.

“We understand the concerns of the community after we had given clear assurances that Waiu Street would be used only for fill that was below the minimum recommended environmental standard.

“We are working hard to put this right and apologise to the community for this error and for any misunderstanding created at the 27 November meeting,” Mr Benham said.

“We are now implementing the same testing procedures in the channel widening area of Waiwhetu stream as those we used in the area where contaminated material was excavated and sent to the Silverstream landfill. This means that nothing will leave the site until we are certain of its quality.

“Additionally, no further cleanfill will be deposited at Waiu Street. We are now working with Hutt City Council to find alternative locations.”

ENDS

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