Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment - Te Kaitiaki Taiao a Te Whare Pāremata

Levin landfill: Environmental management review - Update report

Commissioner's comment

As Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment I have various independent statutory functions under the Environment Act. One of these is to investigate environmental issues, processes, and public agencies.

In August 2008 I released a report entitled Levin landfill:  Environmental management review. This report looked at the management and environmental effects of the Levin landfill.

Background

The investigation began as a result of letters to the second Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Morgan Williams, in late 2004. Several members of the local community, including tangata whenua, expressed concern about the management and environmental effects of the Levin landfill. This landfill is located west of Levin, just south of the Hōkio Stream and 500m southeast of the Ngātokowaru marae. The holder of the resource consents for the landfill is the Horowhenua District Council.

Dr Williams put an investigation on hold after Horizons (Manawatu-Whanganui) Regional Council entered into negotiations with Horowhenua District Council in April 2005. I became Commissioner in 2007 and, given the lack of progress by the councils, decided to restart this investigation. My aims were to help restart the consent review process, give the local community a chance to be part of the decision making for the landfill, and ensure certain areas of concern were addressed.

Brief history of Levin landfill

From the mid-1970s a dump operated on Hōkio Beach Road. Tangata whenua expressed concern at the time about possible effects of this dump on groundwater, the Hōkio Stream, and wāhi tapu such as archaeological sites.

With the increased volume of waste coming in, the landfill was due to reach capacity by the late 1990s. Planning for a new landfill on the same property began in 1994, and in 1997 five consents were granted. However, these were appealed. It was not until 2002 that the five resource consents were finalised and construction of a new lined landfill began.

The new landfill was opened on the property in 2004. The old unlined landfill, now well over-capacity, was closed and capped. Monitoring of environmental effects was then required for both the old and new landfills, with results reported regularly to a Neighbourhood Liaison Group.

Complaints were subsequently made about the capping of the old landfill, compliance with landfill management plans and resource consent conditions, the quality of monitoring data and reporting, and the enforcement of consent conditions.[i] 

[i] Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE). 2008. Levin landfill: Environmental management review. Wellington: PCE.