‘Illegal’ toxic gas operations found
Two Canterbury companies have been caught using a toxic and atmosphere-damaging gas without consent.
The ‘‘illegal’’ activity was committed by International Primary Products NZ Ltd (IPP), which opened a log fumigation facility in an industrial park in Christchurch in November. It uses methyl bromide to kill insects in logs bound for India and China.
The second discovery – also described as ‘‘illegal’’ by Environment Canterbury (ECan) – concerned Genera Biosecurity, which was running a mobile methyl bromide treatment operation around Canterbury.
Methyl bromide is toxic to humans and damages the ozone layer. It is banned under the Montreal Protocol, but New Zealand has been granted exemptions for its continued use.
ECan knew nothing about IPP’s facility, in the suburb of Woolston, until alert residents reported it about a week after operations started. Containers at the IPP site are kept 25m from the boundary. The nearest houses are about 200m away on Long St.
ECan issued a non-compliance notice to IPP on November 25, which halted fumigations while it investigated. It turned out that the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), the Ministry for Primary Industries, and WorkSafe had inspected the Woolston facility and deemed it safe.
‘‘We have... been provided with boundary air quality monitoring data from IPP and are satisfied that all fumigations carried out to date have been below the tolerable exposure limits set out by the EPA,’’ ECan zone delivery manager Nathan Dougherty said.
On that basis, ECan allowed IPP to resume operations on November 29. An abatement notice gave the company until August to apply for the necessary consent.
‘‘Such discretionary arrangements are not common,’’ said Dougherty. ‘‘[They] involve balancing the seriousness of a noncompliance next to any risks posed.’’
IPP’s owner, Phil Jeune, was ‘‘actively and willingly’’ working on the consent. Jeune declined to comment further, but in an email said no fumigations had occurred in January.
IPP fumigates logs by cramming them into 20-foot containers, sealing them tight, pumping in methyl bromide and leaving them overnight. The next day, a contractor extracts the gas and passes it through activated carbon filters. These filters are believed to be landfilled. The containers are then opened, allowing any remaining gas to rise to the ozone layer. The containers are later loaded onto ships and exported, Jeune said in the email.
As of January 1, 2023, IPP was required to recapture 80% of the gas, he said.
Less is known about Genera’s mobile methyl bromide operation. ECan didn’t know how long it had been working in Canterbury, or where. Genera said it got an abatement notice on December 20 to apply for consent or cease operations by August 31.
The company said it had been ‘‘actively engaging’’ with ECan since early last year to determine compliance requirements.
Under the Montreal Protocol, methyl bromide was supposed to be largely phased out by 2005. But alternatives were few, and in 2010 a predecessor of the EPA mandated that the gas be recaptured from all fumigations by October 2020.
As that deadline approached, it became apparent that recapture techniques did not exist. So, in 2021, the EPA extended the use of methyl bromide, with conditions.
Methyl bromide is an odourless, colourless toxic gas. ‘‘Human exposure to high concentrations … can cause central nervous system and respiratory system failures and can harm the lungs, eyes, and skin,’’ according to the American EPA. Others are less conservative and link the gas to motor neurone disease and other conditions.
It dissipates ‘‘rapidly’’ to the atmosphere, and is most dangerous at the fumigation site, the American agency states.