Early obstacle for waste incinerator

By Scott MacLeod

GISBORNE - Olivine New Zealand, which wants to convert the mothballed Meremere power station into a waste-burning plant, has raised the ire of environmentalists by announcing plans for a similar plant in Gisborne.

Olivine spokesman Patrick Barns-Graham says the company wants to build a $78 million to $90 million plant which will burn up to 320,000 tonnes of waste a year - about one-third the proposed throughput of Meremere.

The plans also include a vitrifier to treat up to 15,000 tonnes of hazardous waste a year, scorching it into glass.

Mr Barns-Graham said the high-tech plant would bring $30 million a year to the Gisborne district and generate 192MW of cheap electricity for local use.

Olivine has been talking to the Gisborne District Council for at least a year, but few details had emerged until now.

Gisborne environmentalists say they are appalled at the proposal and have vowed to fight it.

A spokesman for the Gisborne Environmental Centre, Nisbet Smith, said he found it hard to believe that burning so much toxic waste could be clean.

"They'll get a lot of fight here. It's just flirting with madness."

Another group, the Maruia Society, said it appeared Olivine was moving into Gisborne because its Meremere plan had failed to get resource consent.

Olivine has taken the Environment Waikato regional council to court over Meremere, claiming the council has charged the company too much to process its resource consent.

The squabble has frozen progress on the plant by more than a year.

Maruia spokesman Guy Salmon said: "Perhaps the company thinks the Gisborne District Council will be a pushover compared to Environment Waikato."

But the Gisborne council's manager of engineering and works, Bill Turner, said Olivine's current plan would probably fail to win resource consent.

So far there had been only tentative talks. No application had yet been made for consent and no site had been chosen.

"They came, we had discussions, that's as far as we've got," Mr Turner said.

Another Olivine spokesman, Craig Jepson, said new technology would make the plant cleaner than a rubbish dump, and would allow it to deal safely with toxins at present sent overseas.

Gisborne had been targeted because it needed Olivine's electricity, had plenty of willing workers, and produced a lot of waste from its forestry industries. The plant will employ up to 50 people.

"Gisborne could export power instead of importing it, give its industries cheaper electricity and do away with filthy rubbish dumps," Mr Jepson said.

Olivine's plans are a first for New Zealand, but similar plants are taking over from rubbish dumps in Europe.