Taha Asia Pacific is still facing court action for allegedly storing the potentially hazardous Ouvea premix material at a site near Edendale without consent, despite already paying more than $30,000 in costs.
Ouvea premix is a hazardous substance left over from recycling aluminum dross from the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter.
The Bahrain-based company has been storing the material for several years and plans to establish a factory to process it to make mineral fertiliser.
Late last month, the Environment Court issued an enforcement order requiring the company to pay $30,745.97 to Environment Southland (ES) towards the cost of investigating and cleaning up premix stored in a gravel extraction pit at Coal Pit Rd, Edendale.
Taha had been charged with discharging an industrial contaminant at Edendale in circumstances where that contaminant might enter water or get into the air, ES compliance manager Simon Mapp said.
The court case continued despite costs being awarded.
''We can ask the Environment Court for costs in the interim so ratepayers are not out of pocket, and that is what happened in this case.''
The money would reimburse investigation, enforcement, legal and clean-up costs.
Mr Mapp said ES staff were also investigating a separate complaint Taha was storing or had stored premix at another unnamed rural Southland location.
Taha is seeking retrospective resource consent to store Ouvea premix at the former Mataura paper mill and a hearing before two independent commissioners began in Mataura yesterday.
The hearing is expected to conclude on Friday.
A total of 64 submissions were received, all but two opposed to the application.
