In a statement this week the council clarified its plans to cleanup vulnerable sites at both the former Hampden landfill and the two Beach Road historical dump sites were well advanced when $6.6million in emergency funding was announced by the government in February last year.
It applied to four South Island landfill sites including one near Timaru.
The emergency funding announced a year ago under the Contaminated Sites and Vulnerable Landfill Fund did not call for applications until October — by which time Project Reclaim was winding down.
"By the time the fund opened for application the work was almost complete — meaning we did not qualify for funding," the council said.
The emergency funding announced a year ago had been above the annual $2.6m allocation usually available to councils under the Contaminated Sites Remediation Fund (CSRF), a council spokesman said.
Work began on the $12m-$15m Project Reclaim in 2022 and council appointed a contractor by the middle of 2023.
The work included constructing a special cell at the Palmerston Landfill from November 2023 to receive over 35,000 tonnes of waste from Hampden and Beach Road.
"In February 2024, the government announced $6m in emergency funding for four landfill sites, and that they would be setting up a fund that could be applied to later that year."
Only regional councils and unitary authorities were eligible to apply for the $6.6m.
"By May 2024, the landfill cell at Palmerston was completed and in June our contractor began work at Hampden to remove the waste from the former landfill site.
"That work was near completion in August, and work moved to Beach Road later that same month before wrapping up in November.
"The fund does not fund retrospectively," the council said.
The council statement said it had considered "pausing" Project Reclaim to meet the October timeframe for an application for the emergency funding.
At that stage, last August, the contractors were finishing at Hampden and about to move on to Beach Rd.
"This would have incurred additional costs with no guarantee of the funding being awarded.
"The panel who considers applications will meet for the first time in February 2025."
— APL
