Rio Tinto behaviour over its waste ‘outrageous’
Environment Minister David Parker says he has had enough of Rio Tinto and is considering legal action against the owner of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter over its failure to deal with its hazardous waste.
Parker’s tough words follow claims the company reneged on a verbal agreement given last week to remove the waste that has been stored in the Southland town of Mataura for the past six years.
The 10,000 tonnes of ouvea premix in a disused paper mill came close to being inundated by flood waters last week which could have set off a highly dangerous cloud of ammonia gas.
Rio Tinto’s website states it is committed to mitigating its operation’s impact and reports its efforts to look after the environment, from bears in Canada to native trees in Australia.
Parker said Rio Tinto needed to clean up its ‘‘mess’’ in Southland. ‘‘For them to try and escape some responsibility for cleaning up the mess that comes from their own smelter – it is outrageous.
‘‘I cannot reconcile it with their statements of corporate responsibility ... on their own website. They talk about preserving grizzly bears in Canada and migrating birds in Australia. Well perhaps they could take the same stance when it comes to the people and the environment of Southland.’’
Rio Tinto paid Bahrain’s Taha Industries to take the dross off its hands in 2014. That company went into liquidation in 2016.
A deal was cut last year between the Government and local councils to move the waste from the Mataura mill and other sites over six years.
Fast forward to last week, and Gore District Council chief executive Steve Parry said he had a verbal agreement with the chief executive of the smelter, Stewart Hamilton, to speed up the removal of the dross and to store it at the smelter. But days later, Parry said, Hamilton reneged on that deal.
Parker said that was disgraceful. ‘‘Central government agreed to kick in a million dollars, the smelter a bit more than a million dollars and the councils some hundreds of thousands of dollars to get the cleanup started in a major way. ‘‘We did not bring to bear those underlying legal liability issues but maybe we the Government should be looking at suing them now.’’
Parry said he was told Rio Tinto did not want to import any extra liability onto its site until its strategic review on the future of the Tiwai Point smelter was completed at the end of March.
The contract in place provides for moving the dross from the factory in up to 21⁄2 years. ‘‘Given the floods we have just had, that was considered to be just too long.’’
The high-level agreement in principle was for a three-month removal period starting at the end of March, Parry said.
He said that as a small council, Gore would be reluctant to take legal action on its own.
‘‘What we don’t want to see is a process bogged down in legal action which could take a long time and cost a lot of money.
‘‘We need to remember there is a contract in place, it is still running, ... and in 21⁄2 years that warehouse in Mataura will be cleared out.’’
Parker told RNZ he was staggered Rio Tinto had tried to connect the waste from aluminium production with its strategic review. ‘‘It has got a history of crying wolf over its financial situation to try to wring out concessions from successive New Zealand governments,’’ he said.
‘‘They paid a company to take this dross and in the end that dross was just dumped at various sites around Southland. It was not processed. Rio Tinto say it is not their problem that their contractor did not do it.’’
The minister said any court action would not take place quickly and he did not want to overstate the risk, given the highest flood on record did not get into the warehouse. But there was a contrast between Rio Tinto’s statements on the environment and its conduct in New Zealand.
Smelter chief executive Stewart Hamilton released a statement which did not address whether the company had given a verbal undertaking. ‘‘We remain committed to a solution that removes the material,’’ the statement said.
Sort Out The Dross action group spokesperson Cherie Chapman said Rio Tinto should take care of its waste instead of palming it off onto the people of Southland. Nobody in Mataura had a say about the dross being stored in the middle of their town, she said. ‘‘It was snuck in to those buildings without any consents whatsoever, and the resource consent was then retrospective.
‘‘Shortly after, the company went into liquidation.’’