A new Government fund for cleaning up contaminated sites has shouldered the bulk of the cost of remediating Nelson’s Tāhunanui Beach.
About 10,000 cubic metres of toxic sawdust and sand is currently being removed from the beach environment from where it had been used as fill in the 1960s for a raised carpark.
Minister for the Environment Penny Simmonds announced the $3.44 million grant during a visit on Tuesday morning.
“This is such a stunning beach, and it’s so important to Nelson. But of course, places like this all over the country, we find there are legacy issues.”
The new Contaminated Sites and Vulnerable Landfills Fund will provide $30 million a year for councils and landowners clean up historic sites that are vulnerable to the effects of severe weather.
The sawdust at Tāhunanui Beach has levels of arsenic above safe recreational health standards, while other contaminants such as chromium, boron, copper, and dioxins, exceeded safe ecological limits.
Though now protected by a bund, the site had previously been eroding, allowing some of the material to escape into the environment.
Simmonds said that a single severe weather event at the beach could have proven “disastrous” if the sawdust had remained.
“It becomes much more expensive when we are trying to do something after the fact has occurred. That’s why we really want to get in and get hold of these sites before they cause an environmental and health risk to people.”
She couldn’t say specifically how many sites like the one at Tāhunanui Beach were located across the country, but “we know there will be hundreds”.
“It’s really important for us to be helping the local councils to remediate them.”
Nelson Mayor Nick Smith said the confirmation of funding from the Government was a “really big relief” for the city.
“It’s no secret that our ratepayers are under huge financial pressure, and the cost of the project was unbudgeted, and so it has given us the capacity to be able to get on and do this cleaning.”
He said the beach was “no place” for the contaminants and that the area should be safe and the work completed in time for the busy summer season.
Smith commended the Government for creating the fund as councils could be “nervous” about footing the entire bill for the clean-up of contaminated sites.
“One of the big advantages of the funds is that councils like ours will now be more open about actually finding the sites and making sure we’re responsible.”
The $3.44 million provided by the Government is on top of the $134,000 already provided by the Ministry for the Environment for investigative works after contaminants were found at the site in May 2023, and amounts to 75% of the $4.59m clean-up cost.
Nelson City Council will also spend another $300,000 to restore the dunes, conduct plantings, and replace some of the lost carparks, bringing the total cost of the project to $4.89m – lower than the initial estimation of $5.8m.
Excavation of the contaminated material has begun, with about 50 truckloads being carted to the York Valley Landfill a day.
The landfill has the proper requirements to contain the contaminants.
Landfill dumping accounts for most of the project’s cost.
Though the fund was announced today, more than $12 million of the annual $30 million has already been allocated.
As well as Tāhunanui Beach, the other remediation projects granted funding so far include Little Tahiti Landfill in Milford Sound, Ocean Beach Landfill near Bluff, Te Raekaihau Point Landfill near Wellington, and Peel Forest Landfill in the Timaru District.
