Landfill decision good for region

The announcement by Environment Canterbury that all resource consent applications have been granted for a regional landfill at Kate Valley in North Canterbury has been welcomed by the company behind the project.

A panel of four independent Commissioners heard evidence in a comprehensive resource consent hearing process late last year and earlier this year.

Transwaste Canterbury, the company behind the regional landfill project, is a joint-venture between Christchurch City and five other Canterbury Councils and two national waste companies.

Transwaste Chairman Denis O’Rourke says the decision is still to be studied in detail but it appears the commissioners accepted that the Kate Valley site is suitable for a comprehensively engineered modern landfill.

“ The achievement of a modern high-standard waste disposal facility in Canterbury will realise two of the goals set out in the recently published New Zealand Waste Strategy — to lower the risks of waste and reduce damage to the environment from waste disposal,” Mr O’Rourke says.

The commissioners’ 225-page decision concludes that it is efficient for the proposed Kate Valley landfill to be used to its maximum capacity and they accordingly grant 35-year consents, to operate seven days a week.

The Hearing Panel acknowledged the significant level of opposition to the proposal. However, it concluded that the landfill will result in “no morethan minor” adverse impacts on the local community’s social, economic or cultural well-being, or on its health and safety. Its ruling also states that the landfill will “safeguard the life-supporting capacity of air, water, soil and ecosystems”.

The commissioners have imposed a number of conditions to avoid, remedy or mitigate the potential adverse environmental effects of the landfill operations. Some of these include:

• Construction of an acceleration lane to accommodate the merging of heavy trucks onto State Highway 1
• The hours of transportation for trucks travelling to and from the landfill will be restricted to 7am to 9pm on weekdays, and 9am to 5pm at weekends and public holidays
• A range of limitations on wastes allowed at the landfill
• Extensive monitoring and reporting conditions Hurunui Mayor Tony Arps is also welcoming the decision. The Hurunui District Council, one of the six councils involved in the Transwaste joint-venture, has a special interest because Kate Valley is within its boundaries.

“ I’m confident that it has been a rigorous process and that the concerns of the community were given serious consideration by the independent commissioners,” Mr Arps says.

“ This decision means we are now one step closer to establishing a modern, environmentally sound landfill, which will be operated in accordance with the highest international standards.

“ I have always publicly supported the need for a regional landfill. Until we can achieve zero-waste, the waste that household and commercial operators produce, and we collect on their behalf, has to continue to go to a landfill. The Kate Valley option is not only environmentally sound but also cost-effective. This Council could not have afforded to establish a landfill on its own to the standard that is being promised by Transwaste.”