Steps toward a Permit to Pollute (1)

I have written to Auckland Councillors and to Watercare (see below) stating that I am at a loss to understand how Winstone Aggregates obtained consent to dump “cleanfill” with elevated levels of contaminants in the Three Kings Quarry.

In this blog I explore the ARC officer’s report which formed the basis of commissioner decisions made late 2010. The report is dated 3 June 2010. You can download it here.

It appears that Winstone Aggregates first sought consent from Auckland City Council and Auckland Regional Council in 2009. A Joint Hearing was conducted in late October, early November 2009. Winstone Aggregates required a land use consent from Auckland City Council (change of land use, truck movements etc), and two resource consents from ARC. One of these permits (36221) relates to earthworks on the 14 ha site. The other is a permit (36222) to discharge contaminants onto or into land from a cleanfill. These permits were granted subject to conditions.

Then – and this is where it gets a bit murky – in Winstone Aggregates applied for a further consent from ARC. This was notified in 8th April 2010. This new permit (37770) appears to differ from 36222 (granted in 2009) in one crucial respect.

36222 related to the discharge of contaminants onto or into land from a cleanfill, whereas 37770 relates to the discharge of contaminants to land and / or water from a filling operation.

It appears therefore, that someone, somewhere, recognised belatedly that additional consent was required for the discharge of contaminated water. This appears to have been because some of the cleanfill: “may have contaminants above the natural background levels occurring at the site. The applicant indicated that typically this will be the case for about 15-20% of the materials received and the elevated concentrations in these materials will be about 20-25% high than natural background levels…”

The officer’s report relating to the new resource application contains the following information. And I quote:

6.6 The groundwater quality at the Three Kings Quarry dewatering bore is monitored on a regular basis…. The water is of potable quality…

12.1 Fill materials will be brought to the site in accordance with acceptance levels… based on levels that accord with the upper limit of the volcanic range for soil background levels throughout Auckland Region…. However it is noted that the actual background levels at Three Kings are lower or much lower than the upper volcanic levels throughout the Auckland Region….

12.3.5.2 The leaching of contamination from the materials used to fill the quarry has the potential to impact on the groundwater quality…

Table 4. Fill Acceptance concentration (Part 1). These are scans from the report.

Table 4. Fill Acceptance concentration (Part 2). TPH by the way are hydrocarbons. The way I read this it appears that up to 5,600 mg/kg can be dumped. Not sure how that works. That's more than 5 grams per kilogram. So more than .5% of hydrocarbons allowed. Almost enough to establish an oil well!

12.3.9.2 Groundwater modelling was carried out…. Based on all scenarios the final groundwater concentrations pf the majority of trace elements, for example, arsenic, cadmium, copper, chromium, nickel, lead and zinc, were lower than respective NZ drinking water maximum allowable values… the only exception to this was copper, with concentrations slightl exceeding… the trigger value, and this was caused by slightly elevated copper levels that are already present in existing groundwater concentrations.

There is no discussion in the report of the impact of these changes to groundwater on the aquifers that these groundwaters reccharge. There is a clear statement that copper levels are already elevated. This is the tip of the iceberg of cumulative pollution to aquifers. It is always the last straw that breaks the camel’s back. Just as the last dairy farm kills the river – even though by itself its adverse effects are said to be “less than minor”.


Auckland should not be condoning - in any shape or form - activities which permit new contaminants to add to the contaminant loading already building in our underground water resources. It has to be stopped.


And before this blog gets out of hand I will note some of the conditions attached to the permit that was granted. My understanding is that conditions should be meaningful and enforceable. Yet here ARC essentially allows Winstone Aggregates to carry out their own tests on test waters, to only check 1 in every 150 truckloads of fill dumped there, and to run the landfill without a liner (as there is in other major landfills around Auckland), and without a leachate collection system.

This is a bad joke for Auckland. Amounting to a permit to pollute.