Ariana Sutton is full of questions about whether the smelter site has the potential to poison land and people.

She is just as keen as Environment Southland staff to understand the expert advice being prepared by international engineering company Aurecon for a Tiwai smelter site remediation report to the Government by the end of this month.

“As a community member, as mana whenua and as rate payer, the bombardment of articles coming out about Tiwai’s operations has left me full of questions regarding implications on our health and land. 

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“Are there other poisons we should be aware of that have leaked into the land or sea? What else exactly is buried there? With the existing poisons identified, how are they impacting our bodies, soil and sea? 

“My hope is that the monitoring report brings forth all information, making things completely clear and accessible to the community as soon as possible,” Ms Sutton said.

Depending on Aurecon’s advice, the scope of the site investigation may need to be increased, Environment Southland chief executive Rob Phillips said last week.

Minister for the Environment David Parker asked Environment Southland to investigate the Tiwai site in December 2020, amid the Government’s concerns about remediation after New Zealand Aluminium Smelters Ltd closes the plant in 2024.

Aurecon has already studied the site and late last year reported to Mr Parker and Treasury about the potential for catastrophic consequences from breaches of a giant toxic waste landfill, in a sea rise scenario in 100 years’ time.

A waste storage site at Tiwai Point. PHOTO: Ariana Sutton

Radio New Zealand recently reported former Tiwai smelter staff hold concerns about historic site contamination, prior to the introduction of stricter hazardous waste management regimes under the Resource Management Act in 1991. 

Ms Sutton says the Tiwai smelter owners should have begun planning for site remediation years ago.

“I believe remediation should have begun a long time ago. Rio Tinto announced closing last year, though it was signalled many years ago. If our health and land health was paramount then both monitoring and remediation would have been planned and considered from the outset. 

“I believe Rio Tinto should take full responsibility for the removal now of all waste, since they are the company that profited most, more than Tiwai Smelter and more than the Southland community at large,” she said. 

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Ms Sutton is also keen for the site to be used in a way that benefits future generations.

“Ultimately I want something better than Rio Tinto offered our community. Something that enhances our health, environment and growth, including financial growth. Something that I can be proud of sharing with the next generation. A place I can safely walk around as I did when I was a child, a place I could safely have a picnic, knowing fully that our kaimoana hasn’t been adversely affected. 

“The new site should mostly be driven and owned by Murihiku - Southlander’s and other experts within Aotearoa. It should include diverse innovations in harmony with the ecology and needs of this land and people. When I look out and over from my turangawaewae Awarua/Bluff I want to feel safety, pride and hope in our future,” she said.

The Government has given the regional council $300,000 towards its increased monitoring programme.

Environment Southland is using this fund to commission technical advice and monitoring recommendations.

Mr Phillips said Environment Southland had stepped up its monitoring plan to help the Government understand what was required for site remediation and give the council “a clearer view of ongoing investigations required to get a deeper and broader understanding of the site”.

Environment Southland had monitored the smelter consents for many years, discussed historic waste management with the company, and would continue to work with the smelter to establish the extent of site contamination, he said.

“We need to have robust scientific data, gathered through acceptable best practice, to ensure that we can draw informed conclusions.  

“Environment Southland will share as much information as possible with the public, providing it does not affect our regulatory role as a regional council,” Mr Phillips said. 

The Tiwai Aluminium Smelter. PHOTO: Supplied

New Zealand Aluminium Smelter chief executive Stewart Hamilton said the company was complying with all standards set out in its resource consents.

The company conducted a range of monitoring activities, “often in excess of those required” and provided those reports to Environment Southland every quarter, he said.

“We are unaware of any material being buried at NZAS, in unmapped or unconsented sites. The detailed closure study, currently underway, will examine the site footprint including management of all waste products. This compliments existing monitoring to inform closure and remediation options. 

“We have been operating at Tiwai Point for 50 years under environmental monitoring regimes that evolved over those five decades. Immediate actions were taken to remedy and mitigate any past non-compliances,” Mr Hamilton said. 

The smelter would be closed in a responsible manner and all spent cell lining would be removed.

“We will ensure our closure processes and outcomes are transparent and meet the needs of today,” Mr Hamilton said.

READ MORE

Radio New Zealand reports HERE and HERE

Environment Southlands’s monitoring programme at NZAS HERE.

Environment Southland information about Tiwai groundwater management zone HERE.