Toxic waste cleanup budget halved

Over the fence abutting the Hillside Rd footpath to the former Dunedin Gasworks is an underground tar well which contains potentially cancer-causing chemicals and other toxic waste. Photo: ODT files

A council spokesman said the new budget of $1.2million for the cleanup was due to change once the council had "more detailed information".

Spending on the remediation of the site at 45 Hillside Rd was now expected to take place at the end of the council’s forthcoming long-term plan, in 2033-34, the DCC spokesman said.

The council set aside $2.64m in its previous long-term plan — $2.1m to be spent last year and another $540,000 to be spent this year — but never spent it.

"We haven’t spent any money yet remediating the site, but costs associated with detailed investigation and planning work for this project now total $330,000," the DCC spokesman said.

"The site remains well managed, monitored and contained, and we continue to be in close contact with the Otago Regional Council and Ministry for the Environment to keep both parties updated."

The site contains potentially cancer-causing chemicals and other toxic waste stored in a tar well underground at the site, which used to house the Dunedin gasworks.

High levels of ammonia and cyanide were found in groundwater nearby, but the toxic waste in the tar well was believed to be contained, reports released by the council last year said.

The council declined to release two of six reports into the matter last year, saying one contained "factual inaccuracies".

The other was in progress and yet to be formally considered — but it might be released at a later date, the council said at the time.

The Otago Daily Times asked again for those reports to be released in October, but the council has yet to respond.

The council received $200,000 for the feasibility assessment and the development of a remediation plan in September 2021, when the Otago Regional Council secured funding from the Ministry for the Environment’s contaminated sites remediation fund for the project.

In January 2022, the council said it expected to have a remediation plan in place in the middle of that year.

The former city-owned gasworks stopped operating in 1987.

Nearly a decade ago, engineering consultants MWH told the council the cost of remediation and disposal for the site could be significant.

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz