The proposed cleanfill site is near Hunua Falls, a popular Auckland tourist destination. Photo: RNZ / Murielle Baker
Residents living near a proposed cleanfill site on the outskirts of South Auckland say the roads are not equipped for the 192 truck movements it would bring each day and they are convinced it would lead to someone losing their life.
Scarbro Environment has applied for resource consent to dump cleanfill waste from construction in an area around the size of Auckland's Western Springs Park or Sylvia Park shopping centre, including carparks.
Auckland Council is considering 500 submissions on the proposal and locals are gearing up for a potential legal battle, if it gets the green light.
One of the neighbours of the 26.13ha proposed fill site is Jo Taylor, who told Checkpoint she was concerned about its impact on the area.
"There's contaminants of soil and water supplies."
She said she worried a creek near the dump site, which lead into a dam that supplied Auckland with water, was at risk of contamination, as well as the water and farms in the surrounding area.
"There's possible contamination with our water, because of the dust and we're in a high wind issue," Taylor said. "It'll go onto our roofs and our drinking water... contamination of the paddocks and the fields."
Taylor's other main concern was the quality of the roads, and how the trucks coming and going would affect them.
"The road surfaces are shocking. We have not had any serious work done on the road for years.
"There was a slip in the Hunua Gorge this morning and it was blocked for several hours, as far as I'm aware. The gorge is unstable, it is narrow and there are rock falls, there are slips."
She said it seemed unlikely that two large trucks could pass each other on the narrow stretch of road.
"[It would be] very, very difficult... not big trucks and trailers," Taylor said. "They've said they'll mitigate it with them being on the radio, but that's accounts for them and not any other trucks."
While the council and Scarboro said the site would only feature cleanfill, Taylor said residents were told this was changed on the proposal from cleanfill to manage fill, meaning there was no guarantee it was clean.
"It's such a huge amount of fill coming in. How are they going to manage it?
"How are they going to check for contaminants?"
Taylor said the proposed site was only five minutes away from the Hunua Falls, a popular tourist attraction in Auckland.
"There's huge amounts of flora and fauna, there's kākā, there's bats, there's glow worms, there's a myriad of different native birds and trees all around there. It will completely destroy it."
"The vibration and the noise pollution to start with, there'll be no bird within a 20-mile radius."
She said the site would not only have a huge impact on the wildlife, but also the community in the area.
"There's still working farms that have been there... and there's at least 10 houses around this fill site, so it literally will be in their backyard. They won't be able to see anything but dirt."
Taylor said, if the plans got the green light, she was prepared to go to court over the matter.
"There's going to be fatalities on the road, there's going to be contamination in the water supply."
Scarbro Environment told Checkpoint it was monitoring submissions and would address the matters raised in expert evidence presented at the upcoming council hearing.
On the concern of waste, it said conditions of its consent would limit the type of waste that could be accepted, and impose strict testing requirements to ensure no hazardous or non-approved materials were disposed of.
It said the proposal was not for a landfill, so would not accept waste like heavily contaminated material, household waste or putrescibles that could be deposited at landfills. The proposal would only accept "cleanfill", generated from earthworks for development within existing and future urban areas of Auckland.
On safety and traffic, it said no trucks would access the proposal via Jones Rd. Truck entrance was off Hunua Road to ensure safe access, based on expert traffic engineering advice.
The maximum of 96 trucks per day was only to accommodate seasonal fluctuations in construction activity. On average, 27 trucks would visit the proposal per day or 2-3 trucks per hour.
Vegetation trimming, installation of signage and specific management of Scarboro Civil trucks would resolve both the existing risk in the road network and any risk from traffic associated with its proposal.
Any dust from the proposal would be controlled and, to prevent any waterway contamination, water would be captured and treated in sediment ponds sized to cater for the entire proposal area, before being discharged.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
