‘Spirited bidding’ at auction despite pyrolysis plant
A controversial plan for a thermochemical plant has not put people off bidding on premium subdivision sections down the road.
Waste Transformation Ltd has applied to build a pyrolysis plant beside Bluegums Landfill, at the southern edge of Blenheim, on the same street as the Boulevard Park on Taylor subdivision.
The plant would dispose of thousands of tonnes of copperchrome arsenic (CCA) treated vineyard posts each year, by turning them into charcoal.
Boulevard Park on Taylor residents who moved in before the plant was proposed said if they knew about the plant, they would have thought twice about moving in over fears of airborne emissions.
But Bayleys Marlborough general manager David Lee said his staff advised the 60-or-so interested buyers of the proposed plant before a Boulevard Park on Taylor auction on Friday.
They still sold 19 of the 22 sections, and the highest price reached by the council-developed sections was $237,000.
The properties sold were in the sixth stage of the development, but it was the first auction since the pyrolysis plant resource consent application was officially filed in December.
‘‘There was some very spirited bidding. The attendance was good, it was almost identical to the last auction,’’ Lee said.
The real estate company had a policy of transparency where issues could affect a sale, Lee said.
‘‘But it certainly hasn’t changed the level of interest we’ve seen. It’s a premium subdivision and the level of interest we’ve seen shows that.’’
The council had agreed to fund
‘‘It’s a premium subdivision and the level of interest we’ve seen shows that.’’ Bayleys Marlborough general manager David Lee
part of the plant, tipped to be an industry-scale solution for the 8000 tonnes of treated timber sent to landfill each year in Marlborough.
Boulevard Park on Taylor resident Alan Hall said he was worried people did not understand or care about the possibility of health effects from the plant’s airborne emissions.
He was one of several residents that lobbied for more evidence about health effects since the idea was first floated in 2016.
But Waste Transformation chief executive Mike Henare said last year while emotive language, words such as ‘pyrolysis’ and ‘arsenic’, had stirred residents into a frenzy, the science was on their side.
The plant’s emissions would be less than 5 per cent of the allowable guidelines set by the Ministry of the Environment, Henare said.
Marlborough District Council communications adviser Stacey Boswell said the resource consent application would be publicly notified, which meant anybody could make a submission for or against the proposal.
The council also suggested Waste Transformation Ltd consider doing a health risk assessment to support its application.
Boswell said the council expected to receive that information ‘‘in the next few weeks’’ and could publicly notify the application then, if the request was sufficiently answered.