Multimilliondollar plan for landfill

MORE than $14 million will be spent on a new landfill gas capture and destruction system at the Victoria Flats landfill, near Gibbston.

The capital cost of the system, a fix for the smell emanating from the landfill, will be borne by landfill owner/operator Scope Resources, a report to be considered by Queenstown Lakes District councillors today reveals.

The council would pay that back over the remaining 14 and ahalf years of the contract, council maintenance and operations manager Laura Gledhill said in her report.

The forecast capital cost of the system was $7.83 million for the existing landfill footprint.

Another $6.9 million would be invested extending the system as the landfill footprint grew.

Projections suggested the landfill’s operational costs would rise over the contract, from $65.7 million to $89.2 million, excluding annual cost fluctuations, she advises councillors.

The landfill gate fee would climb from $73 to $99, excluding levies, per tonne.

That could start on January 1 and would apply to all waste taken directly to the landfill, or indirectly through transfer stations.

Scope had been collecting a landfill gas levy, set at $6.17 per tonne, on the council’s behalf. In her report, Ms Gledhill proposes the levy be dropped when the price increase is imposed.

A ‘‘rate adjustment’’, however, was likely in the 202021 financial year.

The landfill operates under consents from the Otago Regional Council.

The council and Scope had been designing the gas system over the past 18 months, seeking to preempt changes requiring it to comply with the National Environmental

Standard for Air Quality.

The standard requires landfills with a total capacity of more than 1000 tonnes and containing more than 200,000 tonnes of waste, to collect landfill gases.

The regional council reviewed the discharge to air consent, reissued on August 12, requiring a landfill gas capture and destruction system be installed and commissioned by December 1, 2020.