New plan may be needed for ouvea premix removal
Alternative options will be considered to remove thousands of tonnes of hazardous material from Southland sheds if current negotiations fall through.
About 22,000 tonnes of ouvea premix, located at five locations in Southland, are stored in one tonne bags in buildings at Awarua and Invercargill and at the old Mataura paper mill.
Last month chief negotiator Steve Parry said negotiations with a potential offshore purchaser had become complex due to changing importation standards for the country proposing to receive the product, issues around the quality of bags the product was in, and the actual makeup of the product itself.
Samples had been taken by the offshore company, understood to be in Australia, and there were ‘‘some issues’’ as to whether the product was what it was said to be, while some rebagging might be required, he said.
Parry was to have met with the potential purchaser in recent weeks, but on Tuesday he said the meeting had yet to take place.
Contingency planning might be needed if the current negotiations could not be progressed, he said.
He would meet with Ministry for the Environment officials to review progress and explore the possibility of other options, if needed.
The ministry was one of the major funders of the ouvea premix removal and it held concerns, he said.
A Ministry for the Environment spokeswoman confirmed ministry officials would be meeting with Parry in coming weeks to discuss alternative short and long-term options, should the current negotiations fall through.
Cherie Chapman, spokeswoman for a group called Sort out the Dross, says a government intervention was needed to get rid of the material from Southland sheds before winter.
It was time for the government to step in, or a new negotiator to be put in place, she said.
Chapman said it was wrong to have put a single label on the product in the first place because it was made up of a mixture of materials.
Parry said he had tried his level best in negotiations and if someone else believed they could do a better job he would not stand in their way.
‘‘Maybe Cherie needs to put her services to Government.’’
Parry said he had not known it wasn’t a single product but they had walked into the process thinking they might find out quantities and the make up of the product could be different to what had been represented.
NZAS chief executive Stew Hamilton said it was concerned the removal of the material was not progressing as quickly as everyone wanted it to.
‘‘We committed to provide funding last year and want the negotiations to be resolved.
‘‘My team and I will continue working with the Southland community to deliver a solution to an unfortunate situation left behind by an international company.’’