However, what that progress is remains unclear.
More than a year ago the council said it expected to have a plan in place in about six months time for what could be 1,000,000 litres of tar in a well at the former Dunedin Gasworks site at 45 Hillside Rd.
In September 2021, the council received $200,000 for a feasibility assessment and the development of a remediation plan for toxic waste when the Otago Regional Council secured funding from the Ministry for the Environment’s contaminated sites remediation fund for the city council clean-up project.
The tar well is among the remnants of the Dunedin Gasworks — the first and last commercial coal gas operation in New Zealand — that closed in 1987.
Official information requests by the Otago Daily Times more than eight years ago, in 2014, uncovered two reports from the previous year, labelled "confidential", which outlined the "serious health and safety issue" posed by the tar well, and the "significant risk" it posed to the city council in terms of the financial implications and the potential hazard to the environment.
In 2021, a council spokesman said the council had $2.64 million in its 10-year plan for any future remediation of the site.
The bulk of the money was due to be spent in the presently forthcoming financial year, 2023-24, ($2.1 million) with the remainder to be spent the following year ($540,000), the spokesman said.
At the beginning of last year the spokesman said work on the feasibility assessment under way was continuing, with a number of options still under consideration.
The council was working towards developing a remediation action plan by mid-2022, he said at the time.
When that did not transpire, he said, in August last year the council’s timeframes were being "informed" by the work it was undertaking.
"The objective is to ensure the successful completion of activities through a timely and effective approach."
At the start of this year there were no further updates on the project, the spokesman said.
"We’ll have more to say in due course," he said.
Asked if there was a delay in the work, he clarified this month council planning for the project was "continuing and making good progress".
"Determining potential remedial options is a specialised and complex piece of work and the timeframe is governed by the time it takes to ensure all options are appropriately investigated.
"We remain in regular contact with the Otago Regional Council and Ministry for the Environment as the remedial option assessment work continues, and both are satisfied that our approach is on track for delivering the project successfully."
