Probe finds no toxins risk from Taranaki company

An investigation in Taranaki has cleared a chemical company of claims of dumping toxic wastes.

The Taranaki Regional Council said yesterday that its probe into claims of inappropriate disposals of agrichemical wastes from the Ivon Watkins Dow plant years ago had found no evidence of environmental risk at any of the 36 separate sites investigated.

"The extensive investigation also found no evidence of any new drumsites," the council said.

Environmental groups have claimed repeatedly that the New Plymouth company, now Dow AgroSciences, had dumped truckloads of drums of toxic waste in and around the the city between 1960 and 1980. The groups also claimed the "dumping" had caused health problems and deformities.

Last month a Taranaki District Health Board investigation into residents living near the chemical plant in New Plymouth found no evidence of high rates of illness.

The regional council chief executive, Basil Chamberlain, said the allegations deserved immediate attention and they got it.

Dow AgroSciences country manager Peter Dryden welcomed the report.

"We are pleased it has been clearly shown no such inappropriate dumping or contamination occurred at any of these sites.

Mr Chamberlain said five of the sites were dump sites known to the council and had been rehabilitated in the 1980s. The original clean-up was found to have been effective and there was no evidence of any additional unknown wastes.

Nor, he said, was there any evidence of disposal of agrichemical wastes at any of a further 312 sites investigated.

The sites were checked in various ways - analysis of aerial photographs and other historical records, probes with augurs, excavation, ground-penetrating radar, sampling of soil, sediments, surface and groundwaters, leachate and marine biota.

Mr Chamberlain said the report concluded there was no evidence of environmental risk at any site, or in the marine environment near any site on the coast.

The council would consider at its meeting on September 26 whether further action was required. Mr Dryden said investigation of the allegations against the firm had cost ratepayers $166,500.

The report would be of considerable reassurance to the community.

- NZPA