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The site of Waste Management NZ’s (WM) proposed massive new landfill near the Dome Valley was rejected twice as being unsuitable, with several other potential sites ranked far more highly, the Environment Court heard on Friday.
WM has always insisted that the forested valley south of Wellsford was the most suitable site it could find in the whole of Auckland. However, in documents outlining the selection process provided to the court by WM’s counsel, it became clear that Wayby was far from first choice.
During questions to WM’s environmental technical manager, Bruce Horide, Judge Jeff Smith said reports commissioned by the waste giant from engineers Tonkin & Taylor had ranked Wayby at 55%, compared with 71% for a site at Woodhill.
He said a 2014 report contained a number of significant geological and ecological concerns with the Dome site, including the fractured nature of the Pakiri sandstone, significant ecological areas and the nearby river.
Smith said a report from January 2015 showed that Wayby Valley had been discounted and was no longer part of the project to find a new landfill, and in October 2016, it was the Woodhill site that met most of WM’s criteria, something Horide confirmed.
However, when Springhill Farm came on the market in 2017, WM decided to purchase the property and that then became the site of choice.
“The decision was made to proceed, even though there were geological issues, special environmental areas and water contamination (issues) and they were known to you when you offered to purchase Springhill?” Smith asked Horide.
“We have seen no documents to date that show there was any evaluation of that site other than that done in 2014.
“It seems clear from the evidence we have seen to date that Springhill was purchased without any site selection.”
Horide said there were engineering solutions for any of the issues and concerns presented by the Wayby site, though he couldn’t say who exactly decided that was the case in 2107 when Springhill was purchased.
Smith also voiced concern that WM had made what appeared to be a deliberate decision not to engage with, or consult, local Maori prior to opting for the Wayby site.
“There has been no indication that there was any contact with tangata whenua until over a year later,” he said.
Horide was also taken to task on this by Manuhiri Kaitiaki Charitable Trust counsel Jason Pou, who branded WM’s approach to consultation as racist.
“Maori entities get really frustrated when companies come along and say it’s really hard dealing with Maori entities,” he said. “If it was a Pakeha company, you would find them.
“There were several landowners and you found them all and engaged with them.
“You prioritised Pakeha needs and Pakeha landholders and suggest Maori are too difficult to deal with, hard to engage with and fight too much. It’s a racist approach.”
WM barrister Bal Matheson objected, and said it wasn’t an appropriate way to phrase the question, but Pou was unmoved.
“I’m not going to rephrase. Pakeha companies get dealt with differently to Maori entities,” he said.
When asked if WM had chosen not to engage with Maori over the choice of the Wayby site, Horide said the company had made a decision on when and if contact would be made.
“And you decided to do that after you’d decided where this (landfill) was going to go,” Pou said.
Waste Management on why it chose Wayby:
Mahurangi Matters, October 2018
Springhill, which is the former home of the late tech millionaire Tony Lentino and, prior to that, Wellsford businessman and philanthropist Richard Izard, went on the market in August last year. However, Waste Management managing director Tom Nickels says the company had already picked out the forestry block as its preferred site before that.
“This was identified before Springhill Estate was available for purchase,” he said.
Mahurangi Matters, June 21
“The site was chosen after years of searching for an ideal location that carefully considered and evaluated a range of technical, ecological, cultural and engineering requirements. We believe it is the most suitable site for a landfill to safely manage Auckland’s waste into the future.”
