An aerial view of the Taylorville landfill site shows the cells within the terrace-top site, and the Greymouth town water supply treatment station below the road, on the right. Supplied / Greymouth Star
An aerial view of the Taylorville landfill site shows the cells within the terrace-top site, and the Greymouth town water supply treatment station below the road, on the right. Supplied / Greymouth Star
A strong smell emitting from near the Taylorville Resource Park landfill has continued since an abatement notice was issued earlier this month, a local resident says.
As a regular daily user of Taylorville Road, nothing had changed in the past week and the odour from the roadside drain running down below the private landfill was “still quite smelly,” the local said.
“I bike. For one, you get pretty close to that drain and the smell is in your face for quite a few minutes as you bike past... there has been no change,” he said.
He had previously complained to the authorities about the site and was incensed at the pace of “remediating the mess”.
The site had been a “really bad choice” given its location just uphill from the Greymouth town water treatment station.
Sunday marked the end of the one-week timeframe for the landfill operator to take action after being served with an abatement notice from the West Coast Regional Council.
The notice required them “to cease the discharge of contaminants beyond the property boundary”.
Planning and science manager Fiona Thomson said full compliance was required by Sunday, and council staff would now visit to assess compliance.
She confirmed that the abatement was issued after the council was made aware of the discolouration in the drain water.
A report before the Resource Management Committee last week also noted a persistent odour from the site when staff investigated.
Water was flowing down a private road and into the drain by Taylorville Road.
A concerned resident supplied a photo of the contaminated water running from a creek by an old accessway below the landfill to the Greymouth Star and said they had been aware of the dirty water at that point for the past few months.
Cloudy water from the Taylorville landfill site converges with clean water in the roadside drain, close to the Greymouth water treatment site, on May 5. Photo / Supplied / Greymouth Star
Following a complaint prior to Anzac Day, the contamination had moderated but had since worsened.
They described it as a “thick grey type of scum” which merged with a clean drain running down Piggery Hill along the edge of Taylorville Road and then crossed under the road to the water treatment plant side.
“From this spot... you can see the GDC water station about 50m away.
“It seems immensely obvious that whatever method is being used to treat the water prior to its discharge into this creek is completely inadequate.”
Meanwhile, the Grey District Council said its primary concern remained the security of the water supply.
It had commissioned an independent review of the regional council’s consenting of the landfill, and group manager operations Aaron Haymes said the results of that would first be discussed with the regional council.
Meanwhile, Taylorville Resource Park has acknowledged “something has changed” in the system, it uses to manage sediment-laden water.
It is seeking a variation on the current consent conditions to use a flocculent to separate heavy metals out of the water into a water management system sediment pond.
The application has not identified any affected parties.
Its application notes the discharge of contaminated water “has contravened” a condition of its resource consent.
“The application to use a flocculant will remedy this problem and keep the water management on site,” the application said.
Taylorville Resource Park Ltd lodged the variation application on the same day the regional council served an abatement notice on the site, on May 4.
According to the application the operator wants to use a flocculent “to drop” metals out of water into the sediment pond.
“The sediment-laden water running through our water management system is not dropping to the bottom of the sediment pond,” the application said.
“The pond has been running perfectly for the last couple of years but something has changed and while this is under investigation a flocculent will help alleviate this problem.”
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