Hampton Downs landfill safe, QC tells hearing

HAMILTON - The proposed 87ha landfill at Hampton Downs is a state-of-the-art, safe development, said counsel for the developers at the opening of an appeal hearing in the Environment Court at Hamilton.

The hearing, before Judge Gordon Whiting and three Environment Court commissioners, is expected to last two weeks.

The appellants, Brenda Maxwell, Wendy Finlayson and the Land Air Water Association, are opposed to Environment Waikato and the Waikato District Council's joint decision last year to allow EnviroWaste Services and Northern Disposal Systems to dump 30 million cu m of solid waste in the landfill, near Meremere, over the next 25 years.

EnviroWaste's lawyer, Paul Cavanagh, QC, said in his opening submission that the proposed landfill was designed to have the most up-to-date technology in New Zealand and it complied with the latest international standards.

"The applicant has left no stone unturned in ensuring that the effects of the landfill are avoided, remedied or mitigated so that the impact is negligible."

Mr Cavanagh said that at all times the Waikato River - 500m to 800m away - will have absolute protection from any risk of contamination.

He said it was essential that the landfill was functional within three to six years because five of the seven landfills in the Waikato and Auckland were due to close within five years.

EnviroWaste Services operates two rapidly filling landfills just north of Auckland. The Hampton Downs site will keep the company in the Auckland waste market, providing competition for Waste Management which operates Auckland's other two landfills.

The district and regional councils granted 16 resource consents for the landfill in a joint hearing in October and November last year.

Most of the 620 submissions on the plan were opposed to it. Since then, more than 1000 objectors have signed a petition.