Tāhunanui Beach is one of our city’s most precious gems. It’s a special place for locals to swim, walk, kayak, kite surf, paddleboard, sunbathe or build sandcastles. It is also important for tourism, rated by TripAdvisor as New Zealand’s best beach.
This is no place for toxins such as arsenic, chromium, copper and boron, which are there as a consequence wood waste being dumped at the Back Beach in the 1960s. This was an era when too little value was placed on coastal environments and the risks of chemicals used in timber treatment were poorly understood.
I was initially advised on becoming Mayor that the exposed waste was untreated wood, but it was decided to undertake testing to be sure. This testing last year found levels of contamination that exceeded the safe levels for public health in a recreational area and for coastal ecology.
We moved as quickly as possible to bund the exposed area to prevent its further spread, undertook further testing to determine the extent of the contamination and developed a cleanup plan. The 10,000 cubic metres of material will be excavated and trucked to the York Valley Landfill where it can be properly contained. The sand dunes are to be reconstructed, planted and a car park reinstated at a total cost of $4.9 million.
Council took a punt on 1 August to proceed with the cleanup before confirmation of Government funding to assist. The urgency was due to the ongoing maintenance cost of the bund, the risk of a major storm breaching it and because we wanted the work done before the busy summer period. I had briefed Environment Minister Penny Simmonds and the Ministry on the urgency.
It was a huge relief this week when the Minister announced a grant of $3.4m towards the cleanup from a new Contaminated Sites and Vulnerable Landfills Fund. The cost would otherwise have fallen on ratepayers at a time when households and businesses are squeezed.
There will be disruption for beach users over the next couple of months as our contractors get the job done but the cleanup secures this treasured beach for the future.
