Landfill plans rile neighbours

Turakina Ward resident Linda O'Neill voices her concerns.

Rangitikei locals say they don't want their backyard to be the dumping ground for rubbish from other regions, as it will turn their area into the "toilet bowl" of New Zealand.

More than 50 people packed the Ben Nevis Tavern on Tuesday night to voice their concerns around the magnitude of the footprint and height of a new consent application from Midwest Disposals for the Bonny Glen landfill located in the Turakina Ward.

Residents have until tomorrow to lodge submissions.

At the public meeting many concerns were expressed about the monitoring of the Bonny Glen site owned by Midwest Disposals, and the Levin-based company's application to extend dumping rubbish it collected from New Plymouth, South Taranaki, Wanganui, Palmerston North, Wairarapa and Horowhenua until the year 2055.

Midwest general manager Paul Mullinger told the Chronicle yesterday he could not attend the meeting because of other back-to-back meetings, and late notice. He said the submissions process was where the locals would get proper responses.

"We have nothing to hide. We have spent a long time doing this to make sure the criteria for the groundwater and subsoil conditions are met."

Mr Mullinger confirmed Midwest had spent $1.5 million over five years working on the application. The company engaged design consultants who had to verify the strata beneath the tip with several bores that went to a depth of 100m.

For residents at the meeting, top of the list of concerns centred around the environmental impacts Bonny Glen was having on the people who lived next to it or in the immediate surrounding area, the damage to roads which the Rangitikei ratepayers had to pay for, the smell, the discolouration of streams, vermin, rubbish being blown and carried out of the site, and the short timeframe to make a submission.

One man said it would make Bonny Glen the "toilet bowl of New Zealand".

Another said there was no clear benefit of having Bonny Glen for the ratepayers.

Bob Major told the meeting he lived next door to Bonny Glen and asked what was happening behind the fenceline?

One of his many concerns was information in the application that required more explanation for the ratepayers in the ward.

He said there was already an increase in cats and rats, and seagulls scavenged in the landfill and dropped the rubbish on the surrounding lands. "Once the cats and rats leave their property, we get the problem."

Plastic bags, stones and rubbish ended up on his land and Mr Major had to put down two heifers this year because he believed they had ingested rubbish. "I don't farm rubber gloves," was his wry response at the rubbish that was blown on to his land.

Leachate was another concern: "It is a poison and we have to cope with that."

The leachate is a commercial arrangement the council has with Midwest Disposals to receive and put into the Marton sewerage system, and is separate to the new application.

The tip is lined with a clay sub-base on top of which is an engineered bentonite geo-synthetic clay liner.

On top of that is an HDPE (high density polyethylene) liner on top of which sits another geotextile liner through which the leachate drains.

Mr Mullinger explained to the Chronicle that rainfall percolates down through the waste to the base, which has been graded in a way for the liquid to collect.

He added there was likely to be a pre-hearing site visit to Bonny Glen.

Another resident at the meeting, Linda O'Neill, had looked closely at the consent application and she was not happy.

"People have changed their farming practices because of the environmental issues, including the death of cows."

Mrs O'Neill added the existing conditions at the landfill were not being met which cast doubt on the application extension.

"They go home, we live here," she said.

Also present were Rangitikei Mayor Andy Watson, Turakina Ward councillor Soraya Peke-Mason, Rangitikei district councillors, and Horizons regulatory manager Richard Munneke.

Mr Watson and Mr Munneke told the meeting they could not tell them what to write in their submissions, they could only advise them of the process.

The Rangitikei District Council will consider the land use consent and the Horizons Regional Council the discharges to land, water and air.