The Dunedin City Council said it received a grant of up to $66,835 from the government’s Contaminated Sites and Vulnerable Landfills Fund.
Council coastal specialist Dr Raphael Krier-Mariani said in a statement the grant would be matched by up to the same amount from previously approved council budgets.
The government funding would not cover work to remedy the site, which would likely require external funding bids, Dr Krier-Mariani said.
However, a shortlist of remediation options and an implementation plan would be developed over the next 12 months and was expected to be presented to the council, and for public feedback, next year, he said.
In April, the council began shoring up the beach with 500m of sand sausages installed as a temporary measure to protect the historic landfill.
At the time, Dunedin City Council coastal engineer Mo Razzaghi said the sand sausages were expected to last at least five years.
They would give the council time to develop a long-term plan for the landfill before coastal erosion caused the landfill material to leak into the coastal marine environment, she said.
The landfill under the Kettle Park sports fields was about 4m to 7m from the edge of the sand dune, Ms Razzaghi said.
An initial investigation last year found the waste in the landfill, which operated from about 1900 to the 1950s, contained asbestos, old gasworks waste and demolition waste too hazardous to be disposed of in municipal landfills — and could even contain munitions and unexploded ordnance from a former army camp to the north of Kettle Park.
The council, later that year, found landfill material extending into the beach’s dune system was larger than expected and about 33,430cu m of waste was at risk of being exposed by coastal erosion.
Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich told the Otago Daily Times that year that in a worst-case scenario the cost to deal with mess could run up to $50 million.
He said the Ministry for the Environment funding was "an important step" towards addressing the threat posed by the historic landfill.
Projects at Nelson’s Tāhunanui Beach, Little Tahiti Landfill in Milford Sound, Ocean Beach Landfill near Bluff, Te Raekaihau Point Landfill near Wellington, and Peel Forest Landfill in the Timaru district also received grants yesterday.
Environment Minister Penny Simmonds said the $30m fund was part of the government’s Q4 action plan.
