by Dimian George, originally posted on December 5, 2016

A Wellington landfill company is under investigation and could face a hefty punishment after being linked to contamination of the Owhiro Stream.

Greater Wellington Regional Council has said it will be reviewing the practices of T & T Landfills, after an investigation found it had breached its resource consent conditions, and was the primary source of discoloured and foamy water in the stream last month.

The discharge into the stream, which flows into Cook Strait at Owhiro Bay, led to numerous calls from the public to the council, which sparked the inquiry.

The council has demanded T & T Landfills completes a “full site investigation” and has issued it with an abatement notice under the Resource Management Act, meaning it must immediately comply with the conditions of its consents or face a fine of up to $200,000, or two years’ imprisonment.

The company is entitled to appeal against the notice, which would take the issue to the Environment Court.

The council said: “Our primary focus is to ensure that the T & T Landfills are taking all steps to mitigate the effects of the discharge.

“To this end, we are in close contact with the site and their engineers to see what additional measures can be put in place.”

The council had sent water samples to a laboratory to be tested for contaminants, mainly the presence and concentration of zinc, iron or manganese.

It was advising people to stay away from the stream until further notice, and said there was a “high risk” of infection, at more than 10 per cent.

The council would be on the company’s site over the next few weeks to check compliance with operational practices. That included reviewing the company’s water quality monitoring data against the findings from the lab analysis.

“We have instructed T & T Landfills to complete a full site investigation and undertake all necessary additional measures to avoid, remedy and mitigate the effects of the discharge.

“We are awaiting to hear from T & T regarding what additional measures they can put in place.”

The company had failed to meet two conditions of its consents, the council said: not constructing a wetland in place of its current stilling basin to capture and treat leachate; and not constructing a clean stormwater diversion system.

It had a resource consent application awaiting approval with the regional council for the stormwater diversion system, and had been working with Wellington City Council to resolve issues relating to its design.

The company, based in Happy Valley Rd, holds a number of resource consents to operate from the regional council and from Wellington City Council.

It refused to comment on its breaches, other than to say “no-one has an answer for it [how the pollution occurred]. There’s nothing else to say”.