Waikato Regional Council report-Envirofert investigation!

A report was done relating to the discharge of two types of materials discharged into the Envirofert clean?fill which FAIL to meet the required definition of clean?fill.

The report was done by Richard Duirs-Consultant Resource Officer

Envirofert from 2008 was taking water treatment sludge from Watercare treatment plants at Tuakau and Huia into their cleanfill.
22,000 tonnes of water treatment sludge has been placed within the cleanfill.


In 2017 Envirofert described the placement of questionable material in the cleanfill.This was waste paper pulp from Oji Fibre Solutions paper manufacturing/recycling operation.
2,000 tonnes of paper pulp waste has been placed in the cleanfill.

Leachate, pondwater and samples from drains etc all indicate contaminated leachate that has high levels of BOD and ammonia indicative of a high load of biodegradable material/organic waste entering the fill site. The mean heavy metal (or rather metalloid) of concern is arsenic but other metals like zinc, nickel, copper etc. all pose a risk.

The results indicate definite potential for adverse effects to occur or to have occurred in the past as a result of ongoing discharges to water. Also Richard Duirs, that did the report, stated, that he would be somewhat concerned about irrigation of pond water to land based on arsenic levels.

Residents of Tuakau that have been to Envirofert liaison meetings, had phone calls, sent video/photos to the Regional Council, sent emails  over many years with the same concerns and Waikato Regional Council have persistently fobbed us off. David Stagg of Waikato Regional Council stated at a meeting, 'no extra chemicals are added' after residents concerns of Watercare Sludge dumped in Envirofert years ago, nothing was done. WRC knew this unlawful waste was being dumped at Envirofert for approximately 8 years, Tuakau residents told David Stagg and still nothing was done.
Ben Murphy (WRC resource officer) has been given evidence of unlawful irrigation, unlawful waste dumping at Envirofert, but it seems that as long as council ask Envirofert the relevant questions and Envirofert answers them to the satisfaction of council, that is the end of it. That is monitoring to councils. Tick another box!  

Councils answers to monitoring are: We have allowed it, We can't tell them how to run their business, They are fully consented, We haven't got the resources! So, issue a consent, conditions are not meet, and council does nothing, looks like they have by reports (paid for by the facilities that are unlawfully dumping wastes) and audits, but, the truth is, council have failed miserably. Ratepayers are paying for these constant mistakes by council staff.

What the hell is a Resource Consent for? It is a legal document to allow facilities to do an illegal operation. Councils are to monitor!!!!!

Councils have failed to monitor Envirofert and have not followed up the many concerns that residents and neighbours of this facility, that if they had this might never have happened. Ratepayers money going into reports that would not have had to be done if David Stagg and William Gauntlett, Isaac McIntyre of WRC had of listened and acted upon residents concerns. Ben Murphy of WRC is resource officer and still nothing is being fixed, admitting that he had never seen the whole site. This is typical of councils, if they fix it, they wont have a job! It is a tip of the iceberg of unlawful waste that Envirofert have taken over many years. A dig up should be called for and waste be removed. Instead Envirofert have closed and capped that part of the clean?fill and opened up another area. Council will monitor the leachate(yeah right) and see if some of the waste needs to be dug up. Like that is going to happen!!
Leachate will continue to leach into the Waikato River. Authorities and locals seem OK with that and do nothing, head in sand stuff. This will come back and bite Tuakau for years to come!

Many audits have the same issues year after year and Envirofert do nothing about the recommendations from the council, and the council don't seem to follow it up.

What is the Waikato Regional Council going to do about these non-compliances?
Are they going to hit Envirofert with a wet bus ticket again? 20 years of non compliances????

We disagree fundamentally with rich urban city councils exporting their garbage problems to rural districts and thereby forcing those communities to bear the economic, environmental, and social costs of processing city and urban waste.