A Southland landfill operator has been given the greenlight on controversial plans for its dump near Winton.  

AB Lime Ltd wants to make its waste landfill at Kings Bend "the premier landfill" for the lower South Island.

It applied for a new 35-year resource consent, which removes the existing 100,000 tonnes per annum cap, enabling the company to more quickly fill the remaining capacity of 23.9 million cubic metres. 

And it also wanted to ensure it can receive emergency waste for the next 25 years.

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Independent commissioner Allan Cubitt has today granted six new resource consents and varied one existing consent for Kings Bend, about four kilometres east of Winton, approving all AB Lime had asked for. 

Environment Southland acting consents manager Bruce Halligan said the council understood that there were some strong concerns about the new consents sought for the landfill. 

"We want to thank the submitters, including tangata whenua, for sharing their views with the council. 

"Their feedback was carefully considered through the decision process. 

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"Commissioner Cubitt was also supported by technical advice from independent landfill and air quality experts. 

"Extensive conditions have been included in relation to matters such as odour management and receipt of special waste, to recognise the submitters' concerns.” 

Some of the conditions include:

• A requirement for monitoring equipment to be installed for the continuous monitoring of hydrogen sulphide gas, to mitigate the potential for odour issues
• A condition specifying a maximum oxygen level to be maintained within the landfill, to minimise the potential for landfill fires
• Conditions relating to the types of waste which may be received and the conditions around this receipt to ensure these are appropriately managed. 

Some concerns raised by submitters were outside of the scope of matters which Commissioner Cubitt could consider, and/or sit within the jurisdiction of the Southland District Council which has a concurrent application from AB Lime.

Katie Allan, of the AB Lime Landfill Action Group, said: "We are devastated to learn today consent has been given in full to AB Lime’s Landfill application. 

"After some pushing our concerns were listened to, but it seems it had no effect on the outcome whatsoever.  

"It was always a done deal, regardless of public opinion. 

"This is a big shock considering that the advice from the independent expert Environment Southland engaged, to refuse the entire application has also been completely dismissed. 

"This decision will have a negative impact on the whole Southland District for generations to come."

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The landfill has been operating for 15 years, next to a well-established limestone quarry.

Under the new consents approved, the landfill footprint, overall capacity, final finished profile and overall physical area of the landfill do not change from those already authorised by the existing consents.

The applicant and submitters’ parties have 15 working days to appeal the decision to the Environment Court should they wish to do so.

Allan says: [That] in our opinion is totally unrealistic on a matter of this scale. After all, the commissioner granted himself many more weeks before making his decision. 

"This follows the whole undemocratic and unfair process of only giving limited notifications when it should have been really be a public notification process." 

The reasons for decision are outlined in the commissioner’s decision document, available on Environment Southland's website.