Greens and Govt tackle toxic clean up and management

The Green Party and the Government today announced a plan to better manage toxic sites in New Zealand, including an additional $9.9 million to clean up the Tui Mine site near Te Aroha.

The Leaders of the National Party and Green Party agreed to include toxic site management work in their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which also includes home insulation, the New Zealand Cycleway, natural health products, and a pilot scheme to better protect forests and wildlife from pests. The toxic management addition to the MoU was signed by Environment Minister Nick Smith and Catherine Delahunty, the Green Party’s Spokesperson for the Environment (Toxics).

“The money for clean up at Tui is urgent, but the other steps we’re taking are critical to keep New Zealanders safe from contamination in the future,” said Ms Delahunty. “We share the Minister’s concern for clear, nationwide rules to manage toxic sites and the public’s right to know about contaminated sites in their communities.

“We also agree that polluters should pay when there’s contamination. It’s incredibly frustrating that we have to spend millions of taxpayer dollars cleaning up the Tui Mine for example.”

The five-point plan agreed between the two Parties includes:
· An additional $9.9 million in funding for clean up at the Tui Mine site. The additional funding brings the total Government spend on Tui to $15.2 million;

· A national register of the highest priority sites for clean up. The priority list will be prepared by the Ministry for the Environment;

· A review of the law around requirements to report contamination as well as the law governing liability for clean up;

· A software system for regional councils to report on contaminated sites;

· An independent review on the viability of extending a National Environment Standard to include environmental as well as public health values.

There are thousands of contaminated sites around New Zealand, Ms Delahunty noted, ranging from old livestock dips to abandoned mines and former timber treatment sites:
“We’d like to get to a point where every New Zealander can easily find information about any toxic sites in their community and also to identify and clean up the worst contaminated sites. It’s a lot of work, it will take a long time, and it’s a big burden on councils, but we’re taking steps in the right direction today.”

The Tui Mine has an estimated 160,000 tonnes of tailings that need containment to avoid leaching into streams and to avoid the risk of a dam failure that would threaten the town of Te Aroha. Environment Waikato and the Matamata-Piako District Council are also contributing to the clean up fund. The site was previously mined for copper, lead, and zinc from 1966-1973.

“The goal is to avoid anything like this in the future,” said Ms Delahunty. “Mining companies shouldn’t be able to leave this kind of mess behind. We need rules that prevent it from ever recurring.

“Meanwhile, the Tui funding is good news for Te Aroha residents and a credit to the members of their community who have been advocating for a clean up for many years.”

The new National Environmental Standard (NES) on contaminated soil announced by the Environment Minister today was also a positive step, but the Green Party hoped to go further, Ms Delahunty said.

“Right now the rules focus on immediate health risks. That means a contaminated site might be capped, for example, but that would still leave a risk of toxics leaching into and damaging land and waterways. We’d like to see if the rules can go further and the Minister has agreed to an independent review.”

The independent review of the NES is part of the agreement announced today