The Dunedin City Council is not saying whether it knew about plans for a Southland landfill to take on more waste from the lower South Island when it applied for its own new landfill near Brighton last year.
Just months before the council applied for consent for a new six million cubic metre landfill at Smooth Hill in August, AB Lime, which owns and operates a regional landfill and a limestone quarry near Winton, applied for a 35-year consent to operate without a limit on how much waste it could dispose of there.
While the footprint of the operation would not change, in its application last year, AB Lime said it aimed to become the primary landfill for the southern South Island.
Allowing the landfill to accept a greater volume of waste annually would avoid the need for the establishment of new landfills to service the region’s waste demands as New Zealand moved towards fewer, better managed landfill sites, it said.
Meanwhile, when Dunedin city councillors first approved lodging the Brighton landfill consent application, at a closed-door meeting on August 5, Cr David Benson-Pope asked staff to investigate the cost of exporting waste from the city.
When asked a series of questions about how AB Lime’s proposed expansion could have factored into the council’s decision-making, the council issued a short statement instead.
A council spokeswoman said the council had allocated $56million in the 10-year plan to develop a new landfill at Smooth Hill. Any change to that approach would be for the council to decide, she said.
The spokeswoman also said staff were asked in August to further investigate the financial impacts of exporting waste from the city.
That work was continuing and the information would be presented to the council in due course.
Both landfill plans have attracted controversy.
In Winton, concerned residents worry that odour issues would increase, and nearby property values would drop.
In Brighton, concerned residents worry about effects on the natural environment of a popular recreational area for Dunedin residents.
About 400 tonnes of municipal waste a year is understood to be trucked past Dunedin from a transfer station in Oamaru to Winton after the closure of the Oamaru landfill.
About 250 tonnes of waste a year continued to go into the ground at the Palmerston landfill.
The rest was taken out of the district by Waste Management, Waitaki District Council recreation manager Erik van der Spek said.
A Queenstown Lakes District Council spokesman said the council had a contract to deliver its municipal waste to the Victoria Flats Landfill near Frankton and there were no plans to change that arrangement.
About 4200 tonnes of sludge from the council’s wastewater treatment plants were sent to Winton every year, he said.
The Brighton landfill application is on hold while the Otago Regional Council waits for more information from the Dunedin City Council, including criteria used to evaluate alternatives.
An independent commissioner’s hearing for the AB Lime application will be held in mid-May.
