South Coast Neighbourhood Society spokeswoman Sarah Ramsay said she expected exporting waste out of district to be part of the forthcoming consultation on the council’s estimated $2billion 10-year plan.
She called herself "the ultimate Nimby" during hearings for the planned Smooth Hill landfill, in Big Stone Rd, where she lives, about a year and a-half ago.
Since then, consent for the landfill has been granted; the Dunedin City Council has released a redacted version of the confidential agenda councillors considered before lodging the consent application; and the council has admitted a report on the cost of exporting waste out of Dunedin, requested by councillors at the closed-door meeting, was never produced.
The council told the Otago Daily Times instead its focus had shifted to the consenting process for Smooth Hill and the extension of the consents for the Green Island landfill.
However, exporting waste had not been ruled out, a spokesman said.
"Councillors will receive a Waste Futures update report, covering all options including waste export, as part of the 10-year plan process," the spokesman said late last year.
The confidential staff report presented to councillors at the 2020 meeting said obtaining resource consent for the landfill could be helpful when negotiating a waste export contract if that was the option councillors decided on.
Listing this as an "advantage" of proceeding with the consent application for Smooth Hill at the time was used to mollify those unsure about the landfill, Mrs Ramsay said.
"On August 5, 2020, the pursuit of the consent as a negotiating lever with prospective contracting parties was an argument used to placate several councillors into approving the consent application.
"This is one of the highest capital expenditure projects on the DCC’s agenda for the next 10 years, so the councillors were wise in requesting commercial export alternatives.
"Now that the consent has been granted I would expect that council staff are fulfilling this promise and will review with interest when it is presented in the 10-year planning consultation."
The confidential 2020 agenda, released under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987, also listed advantages of investigating the financial implications of waste export.
These included gaining the input of the council’s financial team and easing the rates burden if waste export could be used to defer capital spending.
Exporting waste would also allow the council to "buy time" ahead of possible new technologies such as waste to energy plants, the agenda said.
One advantage of investigating the financial implications of exporting waste was redacted by the council before it released the agenda.
All of the disadvantages were also redacted.
This week council chief executive Sandy Graham told the ODT construction of a new landfill at Smooth Hill would be in the draft 10-year plan.
At a meet-the-candidates night in Brighton ahead of the 2022 local election, incumbent councillor Andrew Whiley replied "no" (as did all seven candidates present that night) when asked whether Smooth Hill should be used as a landfill site.
He was the only one of those candidates elected, but declined to comment for this story.
"I anticipate it will be a topic of discussion and debate as part of the 10-year plan," he said.
The class 1 AB Lime landfill in Southland receives waste exported from as far away as Oamaru.
