Chemical dump hearing delayed

Press, 26 January 1984, Page 6

Chemical dump hearing delayed

PA New Plymouth The hearing of an application by Ivan WatkinsDow, Ltd, for a water right for its chemical dump at Omata has been adjourned until March 15. A Taranaki Catchment Commission tribunal will discuss then with the company conditions to the right if it is granted and make a recommendation to the commission.

New Plymouth-based I.W.D. is seeking a two-year water right to discharge dump waste into ground-

water and collect up to 1000 litres of groundwater a day. In his closing submission to the tribunal on Tuesday evening, Mr John Laurenson, for the company, said it had been shown that seepages from the dump did not constitute a hazard to public health or the environment. The poison dioxin was quite properly of public concern and although there was evidence of it underneath the dump, its concentration was no greater than that in chemicals made during 1975 and 1976.

Earlier, the commission’s manager, Mr John Douglas, said the dump should be relocated as soon as possible although a specific alternative site and proposal had not been assessed yet. A long dump life at Omata would involve high maintenance costs and the dump would have to be relocated when erosion encroached on the site, he said.

Mr Douglas urged that the present dump be granted a water right for

two years because relocation could take up to two years. The commission’s senior water conservator, Dr Michael Patrick, said a decision could not be made on a long-term solution for the dump based on evidence to date. In the interim, immediate formulation of a contingency plan for unforeseen occurrences, such as massive cliff slumping and the appearance of dioxin in uncontained seepages, was essential, he said.