Firm baled up over huge rubbish stockpile
Baled waste stored in Christchurch while plans for a West Coast wasteto-energy plant are mooted is being investigated by Environment Canterbury (ECan).
Renew Energy hopes to apply for resource consent for a Hokitika plant in mid-2020 and commission it in 2022. It would burn 1000 tonnes of rubbish every day to create 28 mega watts of power, up to 60 direct jobs and 150 more in construction.
An ECan spokeswoman said up to 4000 bales of waste being stored at a Spencerville Rd property, on the outskirts of Christchurch, was the subject of a compliance investigation. The regional council could not comment further while the case was ongoing, she said.
ERP Group has consent to discharge contaminants to air from a waste transfer and processing facilities on the site. However, ECan confirmed the consent remains inactive until the access road is sealed and a building constructed.
Owner Michael Corcoran said he had not begun construction of the waste transfer station on the site because it was being used by Renew Energy to store the baled waste.
He operates two waste transfer stations in Woolston and Sockburn and is contracted by Renew Energy to bale waste for the proposed wasteto-energy plant.
Consent for the stations includes a condition not to store waste overnight. However, the 4000 bales of waste had been stored on the Spencerville Rd site since June.
Corcoran said he had baled the waste and sold it to Renew Energy and confirmed ECan had a problem with it being stored on the site.
Renew Energy withdrew a resource consent application to store 132,000 tonnes of rubbish in Reefton after the community objected.
‘‘We are not currently baling because we don’t have any storage area to use. It’s been there since we started baling in June and we finished baling at the end of the first week of July, so it’s five weeks of production,’’ Corcoran said.
The bales ‘‘pose no threat or danger to anybody’’, he said.
‘‘Everyone gets concerned because they think it’s rubbish or waste. What we should be calling it refuse-derived fuel ... that’s what it’s called in Europe.
‘‘It doesn’t smell, it doesn’t leak, it’s not hazardous. We have infrared cameras on it to detect heat, so it’s not a fire risk.’’
Renew Energy planned to move the stockpile, he said, and he intended to begin construction of his waste transfer station but did not know when that would be.
The stockpiled waste would end up in landfill if the plant did not go ahead, he said.
A nearby resident objected to the application due to concerns about dust on the unsealed road from 70 truck movements a day. A condition of the consent being granted was for the road to be sealed.
The neighbour, Johannes van der Leij, said he was also concerned about odour from decomposing waste and loose wind blown waste.
Attempts to contact Renew Energy for comment were unsuccessful.