Why were southern standards not applied here?

Environment Court Judge Jeff Smith has questioned why Waste Management NZ (WM) hasn’t followed the same rigorous process for site selection and consultation for its proposed new tip that was carried out for a successful South Island landfill 17 years ago.

The court heard from WM consultant Gareth James that there was a long and public process for the Kate Valley landfill near Christchurch, including extensive consultation and engagement with local iwi and hapu for several years before the site was chosen.

“It was very clear that they were all agreed on the mana whenua, that was never in contention,” he said.

Judge Smith, who was involved in the Kate Valley hearing, said he recalled there was a very robust process around consultation and parties had the agreement of all local authorities, council and tangata whenua long before the case got to court.

“You can’t tell us why witnesses for WM would say they didn’t consider it was appropriate to consult with tangata whenua before site selection?” he asked.

James said that no, he could not assist with that.

The court also heard that the Kate Valley site was chosen using best practice standards from around the world.

“One of reasons Transwaste Canterbury took a very robust approach to site selection by using not only the American but the European and NZ landfill guidelines was that there were no NZ standards for landfill site selection and there still aren’t, so we took the best of what was available throughout the world at the time,” he said.

James added that there were ‘multiple redundancies’ built into Kate Valley, meaning if one area was flooded with leachate, for example, there were several more safeguards in place to catch it before it could escape the site and harm the local environment.

He said the site had since been tested several times with the Christchurch earthquakes and major storms and floods, and each time the landfill had performed better than it was designed for and was coping with anything the weather could throw at it.

Judge Smith said he found it heartening that what was viewed by some at the time as an over-cautious approach was paying off.

“I suppose what I’m asking is why wasn’t the process used in Kate Valley used for this site – you’re not able to help us with that at all, are you?” he asked.

James said he hadn’t been involved with the Wayby project, other than observing it from a distance.

“So you can’t comment either on the catchment, how it deals with rain, or how the geology of the site might work with rain or other factors?” Smith asked.

“No, your honour, I haven’t even been to the site,” James replied.

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WM stats outdated, witness warns

Fight the Tip’s final witness in the Environment Court was Leane Barry, the landfill site’s nearest neighbour, living just one kilometre south of the proposed dump.

She was also the first person to learn about the new tip, when WM executives visited her unannounced in late September 2018 – the only contact she’d ever had from WM, she told the court.

Barry told of the stress the announcement had caused her family, who bought their property on State Highway 1 as an oasis surrounded by native bush.

“One of the reasons we moved there was we wanted something that wouldn’t change over time and that we could hopefully enhance,” she said. “We did due diligence and there was nothing, absolutely nothing that suggested this would happen, or we wouldn’t have touched it with a bargepole.”

The Barry property is right next to the forestry road that would be used as the construction access for the two years it would take to build the tip.

“The noise, vibration, the dust, odour – there’s nothing to stop that getting through to us at any time,” she said.

Barry pointed out that both traffic volumes and weather patterns had changed significantly in recent years, which made WM data from 2014 to 2017 out of date and no longer relevant. She also said the recent long-term road improvements through the Dome had altered the highway layout dramatically.

“There’s no side of the road anymore,” she said. “I don’t think that [WM traffic/road plan] information is accurate and it never can be with the road as it is now.

“All the statistics that I’ve seen in the evidence, they’re talking about weather patterns from five years ago. We’ve seen weather patterns this year that have never been seen before in NZ.

“Putting a dump in the middle of the Dome is just the craziest idea … the craziest idea,” Barry said.