Gunpowder shipments threat to city, says watchdog

Ports of Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell

Plans to store shipping containers of gunpowder at Auckland's port are a danger to the heart of the city, says an environmental watchdog.

The Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma) has given Australian company Defence Logistics a permit to unload four containers each containing up to 14 tonnes of gunpowder at the port and store them temporarily at a holding area before re-loading them.

But the Friends of the Earth environmental group says the gunpowder should be kept well clear of the country's largest city.

Last year, the same company brought three containers of explosives through Auckland.

Members of a community consultation forum with the port say they were not told of the gunpowder plan, and one said she would raise it with port officials this week.

The containers will arrive one at a time over the next year on their way from Australia to California. They also go through Papeete.

Ports of Auckland spokeswoman Catherine Etheridge said the shipments were routine, and the port had an excellent safety record with them.

Long-time staff could not recall an incident with explosives for at least 20 years.

She said such material was carried safely on ships and handled at ports all around the world, including others in the New Zealand.

Australian explosives expert Francis Lawton, a former Australian Army ammunitions manager, said that under United Nations regulations, the gunpowder was packed in a way that prevented sparks or anything else touching the powder and causing an explosion.

"The risk to New Zealand is virtually nil," he said.

Bob Tait, who represents Friends of the Earth on the consultation forum, said Auckland was "in a unique situation of having its main industrial port right at the throat of the country's largest city".

"They should make allowances for that and they can't necessarily operate with practices that are suitable for, say, Port Botany [in Sydney], which is in a very remote location.

"I don't see why we should carry the risk even if it's a small one."

Mr Tait showed the Herald a safety data sheet from another supplier, the IMR Powder Company, warning that if the powder caught fire, it could not be extinguished.

Under "special fire-fighting instructions", the sheet says: "Do not fight fire. Isolate area. Evacuate personnel to a safe area. Guard against intruders."

Erma has stipulated that no other work should be done in vessels carrying gunpowder until it has been unloaded, and no other wharf activities should be carried out near the cargo.

But Mr Tait said the powder did not need a detonator to explode.

"You don't have to rush in there with a lighted candle - shock will set it off ...

"If a vehicle on the wharf has its accelerator cable stuck or something and it hit the container, it would all go," he said.

The Erma permit requires the explosives to be removed from the ship on arrival and towed by a diesel tractor-trailer unit to a designated explosives holding area within the port area.

They would be reloaded immediately before the ship's departure.

The tractor-trailer unit must have at least two fire extinguishers and the front and rear of the unit must carry the word "explosives" in letters at least 15cm high.

Mr Lawton said the fire extinguishers were to put out a fire in the tractor unit - not the powder.

Each shipment is a 6m container containing fibreboard drums of gunpowder inside non-static bags.