Plan to protect old dump from eroding into estuary
Plans to prevent 50-year-old rubbish from polluting a Christchurch estuary have been approved – but only after a stalemate between squabbling councillors was narrowly avoided.
A former dump at Bexley holding waste from the 1970s and 1980s is gradually being exposed and is in danger of spilling its contents into the Avon-Heathcote Estuary during storms.
Demolition material, car parts and hospital, manufacturing and household waste was dumped at the site between 1956 to 1984, peaking with about 180 tonnes a day in 1977.
Now at risk of erosion, the site will be shored up by using gravel, rocks and boulders to contain the rubbish, a $1.5 million project.
But the proposal only just scraped across the line after councillors could not agree over the best option.
The idea was originally mooted in December, when councillors asked for it to be put back to explore a different solution.
It was almost delayed a second time at a meeting yesterday when some in the council chamber vetoed it because they felt staff had not given them enough information about using steel sheets to make a physical barrier, which councillor Phil Mauger claimed would be cheaper.
But others argued it would be more costly and potentially environmentally damaging.
After lengthy debate a split vote left them in deadlock, with Jake McLellan abstaining.
Mayor Lianne Dalziel was in Japan with families bereaved by the February 2011 earthquake, while Catherine Chu – who has raised eyebrows for being chosen as a National MP candidate just weeks after being elected to the council – was away at a conference in Auckland.
The stalemate was broken after legal advice allowed a second vote, and James Daniels and Tim Scandrett changed their views to approve the rock containment project.
Backing the plan, deputy mayor Andrew Turner said using steel sheets would be unnecessary and more expensive, and that something ‘‘needs to be done quickly’’, given the council’s declaration of an environmental and ecological emergency.
‘‘Saving money is great and I am all for saving money when you can.
‘‘But it sounds as though the sheet [steel] piling option would see us spending more,’’ he said.
Anne Galloway said the gravel and rocks option would balance the council’s goals of ‘‘financial restraint’’ and protecting a ‘‘very sensitive, very valuable environment’’.
Sara Templeton reiterated information from staff that forcing steel pilings through the edge of the landfill’s waste would leave the coastal side without protection.
She said it was ‘‘untenable’’ and would encroach on the coastal environment.
Now approved, the plan – opposed in the second vote by Aaron Keown, Sam MacDonald and Mauger – will go to Environment Canterbury and iwi for final consultation.