About 20,000 tonnes of old rubbish, 8000 tonnes more than was estimated, has been excavated from a historic illegal tipping site along a North Otago road.
While excavations are now complete the Waitaki District Council cannot say yet when the road will reopen.
The Ministry for the Environment has also yet to decide if it will waiver about $3.5m of waste disposal levies for Project Reclaim.
The council is being levied to shift the contents of the former Hampden dump and Beach Rd to a special cell at the Palmerston landfill about 60km away.
Both dump sites under Project Reclaim were previously identified as environmental time bombs — with the rate of coastal erosion escalating.
Waitaki District Council solid waste manager Steve Clarke said this week the second part of the $12m-15m Project Reclaim project at Beach Rd was on track.
"It’s going very well. It’s on schedule with excavation now completed," he said.
About 20,000 tonnes had been taken from two points along Beach Rd.
The original estimate was about 12,000 tonnes.
The former Hampden dump had more than 48,000 tonnes removed from it as well.
Mr Clarke did not directly respond when asked if Beach Rd would reopen by Christmas.
The council previously said it was "the aim" to reinstate the road by December.
Mr Clarke has previously said the five-month road closure was fluid, given the unknown quantities of waste and the subsequent work needed to rebuild the road.
However, "more waste than was expected" had been found.
"Now excavation is complete we’ll be assessing the site with our contractors and looking at remediation options."
A hoped-for waiver of $3.5m of waste disposal levies for Project Reclaim was still dependent on the Ministry for the Environment, Mr Clarke said.
At a council activity update in September, councillors were told the first $1.8m waste disposal levy bill had arrived and the second bill was due.
"They’re both in dispute until the Ministry for the Environment considers our application for levy exemption," council natural and built environment director Roger Cook said at the time.
This prompted Cr John McCone to ask how much the council had "thrown into climate change" measures given "most of it is assumptions".
"It’s not a head-in-the-sand question ... We do know that it’s getting hotter," he said.
"We do know there’s erosion on the foreshore.
"We do know that after a dry spell there is a flood, and considering our fiscal policy, how much are we actually throwing at it on an assumption?"
Mr Cook said he did not have a "dollar value" immediately available.
"I would say we’re putting a lot less into it than any other territorial authorities and an awful lot less than any of the regional authorities."
Waitaki’s comparable progress on the climate change front "would be regarded as slow" compared with other districts.
But it was obliged to report "certain aspects" which it was working towards.
"We’re very conscious of the view around climate change within Waitaki and I would say we are probably doing our bare minimum," Mr Cook said.
Mayor Gary Kircher said the difficulty for Waitaki was it bridged two regional council areas with different overarching environmental plans.
Cr Jim Hopkins said he was under the impression Waitaki would not have to pay $3.5m of levies.
Mr Cook said legislation had been passed to allow the waste levy waiver to be considered but the Ministry for the Environment had to adjust its internal processes to do that.
Meantime, the unpaid levy by agreement was "in dispute".
