Geotextile bags, or sand sausages, will be placed at the toe of dunes in front of Kettle Park sports fields, which are on top of a disused landfill threatened by erosion.
It is expected a long-term solution, such as dumping contaminated material at a different site, will come with a multimillion-dollar cost, but in the meantime the Dunedin City Council agreed the sand dunes needed to be stabilised and such work could not wait.
The council yesterday approved an unbudgeted $5 million overspend to deal with the most high-risk areas.
That will allow the bags to be ordered before Christmas and in place before the threat of winter storms.
Councillors were essentially given no other option, but the green light was not given automatically and it came after significant discussion.
The vote was 10-4 and Cr Jim O’Malley abstained.
Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich was one person who voted against, arguing it was not a sustainable course of action and it would scour the beach.
Sand needed to be built up on the beach, he said.
"The proven way to do that is with groynes."
Cr Lee Vandervis said the bags would not arrive for three months and encasing the exposed toe of the landfill in concrete was something that could be done "next week".
Sand could then be put on top and topped up, he said.
Cr Brent Weatherall opposed a "temporary patch-up spend on a few sand sausages".
Council staff made their recommendation on the basis of an interim draft report not released to the public.
Cr O’Malley was not satisfied councillors had received enough timely information that could be subjected to scrutiny.
The longer-term issue — that landfill material would need to be removed — would have to be faced at some point, he said.
Cr Andrew Whiley said the immediate situation had to be dealt with.
One puzzle not resolved at the meeting was why the council was faced with urgent decision-making more than a decade after receiving substantial information about the nature of the problem.
Cr Whiley highlighted both a report from Tonkin and Taylor in 2011 and some discussion before that.
He noted the council had legal responsibilities.
Cr Steve Walker said there was reputational risk to the council if rubbish was allowed to spill into the ocean.
Risk had to be mitigated, he said.
Cr Christine Garey said short-term risk mitigation was the only option for now.
Cr Mandy Mayhem said the council needed to act quickly to boost defences.
Mr Radich wanted to know what the cost might be for sand replenishment, as an alternative to what staff proposed.
At one point he got into a procedural mix-up, moving that the matter lie on the table but then voting against his own motion.
It was lost 14-1, as Cr Vandervis remained for it.
Kettle Park plan
Dunedin city councillors voted whether to approve an overspend of up to $5 million to complete immediate works to mitigate the risk of landfill discharge by using geotextile bags for high-risk areas, while the long-term remediation strategy for the Kettle Park landfill was being refined.
For (10): Crs Andrew Whiley, Cherry Lucas, Sophie Barker, David Benson-Pope, Christine Garey, Kevin Gilbert, Carmen Houlahan, Marie Laufiso, Mandy Mayhem, Steve Walker.
Against (4): Mayor Jules Radich, Crs Bill Acklin, Lee Vandervis, Brent Weatherall.
Abstention (1): Cr Jim O’Malley.
