Toxic clean-up refusal by Crown of Hāwera school site stalls Treaty of Waitangi deal

Angela Kerehoma says Ōkahu Inuāwai doesn't want to buy into an unknown level of liability for asbestos and lead at Tokaora School. Photo / Te Korimako o Taranaki

A hapū due to reclaim a Hāwera school site wants the Crown to remove asbestos and lead from the building but the government landlord is refusing, stalling the return of the land.

A leaked survey of the Tokaora School site by environmental scientists found asbestos throughout the buildings, which are coated with lead paint hiding under layers of acrylic.

Gardens and an area in the playground might also be contaminated, so vegetation should not be disturbed until further assessment.

Neither the hapū nor the school were given the survey report by the site’s current landlord Land Information New Zealand (LINZ).

Around 40 children attend Hāwera Christian School, which has leased the site for 12 years.

The experts from engineering contractor WSP recommend leaving the hazardous materials in place, and using full protective work procedures when they are disturbed or damaged - by accident or during building work.

Ōkahu Inuāwai hapū co-chair Angela Kerehoma said that was unacceptable.

The hapū will get Tokaora School back once a deal is struck with LINZ: It’s a Deferred Selection Procedure (DSP) property in the Treaty settlement of Ngāruahine, which means the iwi can buy it back.

Kerehoma said Ōkahu Inuāwai did not want to buy an unknown future liability of toxic materials.

“Our hapū does not want to take - and should not have to take - that mess. We don’t want it, we don’t want that liability.

“It’s a property that’s a part of our iwi settlement, but it’s still locked away. It’s just a different way of doing it.”

On the wide map of prime land confiscated from Ngāruahine, Tokaora School is the only dot of whenua due to come back to Ōkahu Inuāwai as a DSP: most is in private hands which the Crown rules strictly off-limits.

Kerehoma said Hāwera Christian School should be temporarily moved and LINZ should clean up the site as a condition of sale, as the inspectors did not know how much more asbestos lay hidden in the buildings.

“Children are constantly moving through here, along with families and staff.”

Asbestos has tiny fibres that remain unchanged in the environment for years. If the fibres are released and inhaled into lungs, they can cause the lung disease asbestosis, and lung cancers including mesothelioma.

Lead can cause brain damage, decreased IQ, learning disabilities and behavioural issues in children.

All buildings have asbestos materials except a sports shed and the swimming pool changing room, and all but the latter are covered with lead paint under acrylics, with more lead paint indoors.

Inspectors only checked easily reachable spaces and “inaccessible areas should be assumed to contain asbestos” and managed until properly assessed.

They did not know where four pieces of asbestos fibre cement came from before being found in a garden.

Kerehoma said the duty of Ōkahu Inuāwai to care for people in their area wasn’t taken with the land.

“Anybody who is on this site, utilises this site, is primarily our concern. And we’re concerned.”

Kerehoma said LINZ failed to ensure the site was fit for purpose.

“I don’t know, they say it’s not a problem: they’re not doing anything, they won’t do anything.”

LINZ refused an interview, saying they could not speak due to negotiations with Ngāruahine.

In a statement LINZ head of Crown property Sonya Wikitera said they regularly commissioned asbestos and lead surveys.

“In line with findings in the survey, when asbestos is left in place and is in good condition it does not pose a health and safety risk to people using the property.”

Wikitera said LINZ supplies tenants the survey results, and discloses them in settlement negotiations.

LINZ was “now preparing to share [the leaked report] with interested parties, however, the information is not materially different from the previous report”.

The property is overseen by the Hāwera Christian Education Trust, whose chairman Sam Stewart said they had seen no surveys before Ōkahu Inuāwai shared the leaked report.

“We were very surprised that we’ve never received a report for the whole time since we moved into the school. So that’s irritating.”

Sam Stewart of Hāwera Christian Education Trust says the school is safe but would prefer the asbestos and lead removed by Land Information New Zealand. Photo: LDR / Supplied

Stewart said the Crown has been an absentee landlord as HCET spent $400,000 bringing the abandoned school up to scratch “with no assistance from LINZ”.

He said the lead paint was covered by several coats of acrylic paint and Hāwera Christian School had safety rules for working on the known areas of asbestos.

“It’s only when you start drilling through it or disturbing it that you will generate asbestos fibres.

“We are actively monitoring that. And to the best of our knowledge, there are no loose fibres floating around.

“But I would caveat that with saying, would we love LINZ to remove all the asbestos? 100 percent. Would we want them to remove all the lead paint? 100%.”

The post-settlement trust Te Korowai o Ngāruahine negotiates alongside hapū, and tumu whakarae Te Aorangi Dillon said while some government departments worked constructively with Māori, LINZ was stuck in the Crown’s system of confiscation.

“They come from a framework of muru me te raupatu (plunder and confiscation). We don’t see that ending any time soon and we’re experiencing it at the moment.”

She said Te Korowai relied on LINZ to work better within government and with hapū to help achieve their ambitions in housing and education.

Ten years after the Ngāruahine settlement, and three years after DSP talks began, Tokaora School remains in Crown hands.

Kerehoma said her whānau never lost connection with Tokaora through a century and a half of dispossession.

“I was a pupil of Tokaora School, so was my grandfather, my own siblings, some of my nieces and nephews in the last few years. So, we’ve had a personal perspective, quite a long history here.”

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air