In 2021, the Dunedin City Council was awarded $200,000 from the Ministry for the Environment’s contaminated sites remediation fund for a feasibility assessment and remedial action plan for the tar well of the former Dunedin Gasworks site, in Hillside Rd.
There, underground, sits a 1,400,000-litre tar well containing hazardous waste — a leftover from the former city-owned gasworks, in operation from 1863 to 1987.
A council spokesman said Enviropacific had been contracted to help develop the best option for the site and they would "have more to say in due course".
Management of the site in the interim has included pumping out contaminated rainwater and taking it to Christchurch for disposal.
The council has $2.64 million in its long-term plan for remediation of the site, but the bulk of the money ($2.1 million) is due to be spent in the coming financial year and the rest is earmarked for the next.
In 2017, the council received about $20,000 from the same contaminated sites remediation fund for costs associated with a feasibility study for site options.
Two years ago when the council received the second tranche of money to develop a cleanup plan, a spokesman said the council was not in a position to discuss the funding announcement.
Several months later he said the council aimed to develop a remediation plan by mid-2022.
When that deadline was not met, the Otago Daily Times asked if there had been a delay.
"Timeframes are being informed by the work we’re undertaking," the spokesman said.
