Environment Southland ups monitoring at smelter
Environment Southland is increasing testing and monitoring at Tiwai Point to determine what environmental remediation will be required when the aluminium smelter closes.
The regional council’s chief executive, Rob Phillips, has hired Aurecon, an engineering, design, and advisory company, to provide specialist technical expertise at the smelter site, which is operated by Rio Tinto-owned New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (NZAS).
‘‘We have been asked by Minister for the Environment David Parker to assist the Government to determine the extent of the remediation required at the site once NZAS closes,’’ Phillips said.
‘‘In response, we have developed a monitoring strategy for the NZAS smelter, which builds on our existing compliance monitoring programme.’’
The Government has given Environment Southland $300,000 to go towards engaging external expertise as part of its monitoring strategy, Phillips said.
‘‘We will be in a position to comment further when we have more information at hand.’’
The regional council monitors the conditions of NZAS’s consents, and as part of the strategy, the events monitoring and groundwater sampling will be more frequent, Phillips said.
NZAS holds eight consents allowing it to: discharge contaminants to land; discharge contaminants to air; take groundwater; discharge water which may include contaminants to a coastal marine area; discharge treated sewage to land; discharge wastewater to land; discharge effluent to coastal waters; and occupy the coastal marine area with a pipe structure and with a wharf structure.
Phillips said some monitoring the regional council does now includes groundwater, discharges to air and discharges to water.
The amount of monitoring will increase because Parker wants to find out what the state of the groundwater or soil is under the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter site.
In February, he said his understanding of the situation at Tiwai was poor because the quality of information the Government had received to date had been poor.
Last week the Ministry for the Environment said it was unclear whether Rio Tinto was under any legal obligation to remediate the site of its smelter at Tiwai Point after it closes. Ministry chief executive Vicky Robertson told Parliament’s environment select committee that Rio Tinto’s legal liability to remediate the site had been ‘‘difficult to pin down’’.
NZAS has set aside $298 million in its accounts for the closure and rehabilitation of its Tiwai plant.
It is also conducting an extensive closure study to understand any environmental impacts on the site and to ensure that the operation will be closed in a responsible manner.
In January, NZAS announced the site would stay open for four more years, following an announcement in July last year that it would close in August 2021.