The Evidence For/Against Three Kings Quarry "Cleanfill"

Today's Thursday 17th March. If all goes according to plan legal counsel for Fletchers Infrastructure/Winstone Aggregates will complete the two week Environment Court hearing of its application to use Three Kings Quarry as a cleanfill/managed fill, by delivering the right of reply. I will report later on further developments.

But for now, I thought I would provide you with copies of evidence that has been provided to the Environment Court by various experts and parties to the hearing. Links to selected evidence files are later on below in this blog.

In a hearing of this size, complexity and challenge - there is vast amounts of paper, and it is beyond my resources to make all of it available here. Or even a small proportion of it. Every affidavit is rebutted by those who disagree with it for example. All of this material is available to the Court. The Judge and Commissioners indicate they have either read it all, or they have heard it. And of course witnesses have been cross-examined in Court.

My main interest in this matter has been its potential effect on Auckland's Underground water resources and aquifers. There are other issues of significance including traffic effects, dust effects and so on. However I have concentrated on groundwater effects. So, here's some written evidence that is primarily around that issue. There are many documents other than these....

For Fletchers Infrastructure/Winstone Aggregates

Bernie Chote (General Manager)
Mr Burden (Geo Chemist, expert in environmental effects of landfills)
Mr Harding (Hydrogeologist and computer modeller of groundwater effects)

For Envirowaste Services

Mr Parker (Engineer, expert on Australian landfill policy and management)
Mr Mitchell (Engineer and Planner, expert in environmental effects and RMA)
Mr Northcott (Chemist, NIWA experience, expert in organochlorines in environment)

For Auckland Council

Mr Stapleton (GeoEnvironmental Engineer, expert in soil and landfill processes)

Local Submissions for South Epsom Planning Group

Pip Mules (Local resident)
Garry Law (Engineer and Manager Water systems, expert in water resource management)
Mr Triggs (Professor of Statistics at Auckland University)

Watercare Services Ltd

Mr Widdowson (GeoScientist at BECAs, expert in groundwater monitoring & risk assessment)

These are my selection. They are indicative. Happy reading.

Fletcher’s/Winstone Aggregates History of Denial

The thing about Environment Court hearings is there’s lots of time to chat. You gather before a hearing day, morning tea, lunchtime. And you get the gossip. It has been an opportunity for me hear Dick Bellamy’s side of the Three Kings Quarry story – which goes back a long way. Over thirty years.

The first story he told me about was dust. When the quarry was fairly shallow, he says he could regularly see from his house a D9 bulldozer sitting on top of a pile of scoria. Not sure what it was doing there. And then scoria would be tipped into a stone crusher and plumes of scoria dust would blow into the air, and with a reasonable wind, it would blow over houses in the neighbourhood. So that was a big issue for the locals. Dr Bellamy tried to do something about it. Winstone’s denied that the dust coating the good painted weatherboard homes of Mt Eden was from its operation.

So Dr bellamy carefull took samples of the dust from the houses, and – presumably late at night – scampered down to the quarry and scraped some scoria dust off the stone crusher – and took the samples into his mates at Auckland University. They tested both samples and confirmed they were from the same source.

And when confronted with this evidence, Winstone’s claimed that because the roads on the vicinity had been re-surfaced (good old chip seal I guess) with scoria from its quarry (it claimed), then the motorists using the roads had caused the dust.

Man oh man.

Then, Dr Bellamy explained, came the de-watering. Residents had hoped that when the quarry got down to the water table, quarrying would stop. But Winstone’s applied to de-water the quarry so it could dig deeper. It wanted to dig down much further and get out more scoria. By now residents had succeeded in preventing Winstones from mining basalt – very hard and tough – needed explosives, caused vibration and ground shaking. Dr Bellamy was among the residents who took Winstone’s to task over this. They were concerned about the effects of subsidence. When land is de-watered, certain geologies will shrink, causing subsidence. He explained to me this was because there are old river valleys underneath Auckland’s recent volcanic rocks. These are sedimentary and prone to shrink when de-watered. However it appears that Winstone’s again denied such things would happen. Would never happen.

But there has been subsidence Dr Bellamy confirmed. Not a lot, but it has occurred, in contradiction to Winstone’s firm view. Presumably supported by it experts.

So now we have another denial. This denial is that the contaminants from permitted contaminated fill, will not get into the groundwaters, and will not get into Auckland’s aquifers.

Man oh man.

Garbage In = Garbage Out

There was a delightful moment in the Environment Court on Tuesday 8th March.

Dr Bellamy, who is representing the submissions of the South Epsom Planning Group, got the opportunity to cross examine one of Winstone's key expert witnesses. This was Mr Chote, who has been a senior General Manager for Winstones for several years. His evidence had been "taken as read" by Judge Smith and the two commissioners sitting with him, and all parties respresented then had the opportunity of asking Mr Chote questions about his evidence and the application.

This was day 2 of the hearing of Fletcher Construction's contested application. They want to use the Three Kings Quarry at Mt Eden as a "cleanfill" for around three million cubic metres of "fill" which they hope is permitted to contain contaminants of various kinds (DDT, Petroleum Hydrocarbons, heavy metals etc - see below) up to certain prescribed levels. The South Epsom Planning Group has raised questions about the effect of the proposed fill/cleanfill on the groundwater, and on the Auckland aquifers beneath.

Judge Smith encouraged Dr Bellamy to "go for the jugular", he encouraged Bellamy to "not beat about the bush".



So, first up, Bellamy was keen to demonstrate that his team of experts (many seem to hold positions at Auckland University), had investigated Winstone's computer model of the proposed cleanfill/landfill project. It appears they have big questions over the "permeability" the model ascribes to the fill material. Bellamy talked of it being "five orders of magnitude" in error. (In layman's terms that would mean the Winstone's model assumes fill is 100,000 times more (or less - I wasn't sure from the question) permeable, than it really is. This would make a big difference to the rate at which water would percolate through. And make a big difference to its predictions.

Mr Chote wasn't very clear in his answer, but it seems he's not the Winstone's modelling expert. That person comes later. Dr Bellamy was charitable in his explanation of his question. He beat about the bush a bit here - talked about if the model is that far wrong how can you trust its predictions.



But what I was screaming out for him to say, what the whole court must have been busting for him to say, was:

"GARBAGE IN - GARBAGE OUT".....



But he didn't. Dr Bellamy is too well behaved for that.

Pity really. It was like a metaphor for the whole thing. A sort of truth. Almost the elephant in the room. Stands to reason. If you put contaminants in a hole, you'll get contaminants out of the hole. You get back, what you put in. Unless you collect it, trap it, and treat it.

The pictures on this blog are a selection of what you find if you Google "garbage in equals garbage out".

Proposed Three Kings "Clean" Landfill

This is a recent photo of Three Kings Quarry, operated by Winstone Aggregates. It is located in the middle of Three Kings Volcano - which was formed about 15,000 years ago. Several cones were formed. Three of these were prominent. Two have since been quarried away. Aggregate has been used for roading and other construction projects. Winstone Aggregates have operated the quarry since the 1920's, though quarrying has occurred there for over 150 years.

The red ring on this map shows the approximate location of the quarry. Most Aucklanders are not aware of its existence. From time to time local community groups have expressed concerns about activities there including dust from quarrying and truck movements and so on. A few years ago I was drawn into an issue that emerged. The quarry had been dug deep enough that groundwater was seeping into the floor of the quarry from adjacent aquifers and other underground water sources, and Winstones applied to "dewater" the quarry. This required water to be pumped out and disposed of. That was one issue. Another related issue was when Winstone Aggregates applied to have this water inserted into Auckland's water supply. They wanted to become a bulk water supplier alongside/in competition with Watercare. While the water was very clean - potable - concerns were raised that it would not be treated reliably to the same standard as existing drinking water supplies.

This is a recent aerial photo of the quarry. In 2009 Auckland Council and Auckland Regional Council processed resource consent applications from Winstone Aggregates (owned now by Fletcher Construction Ltd), to change the activity at the quarry from being a quarry to being a landfill. The application was for "cleanfill" to be dumped there - around 3 million cubic metres of it over a ten year period or so. There were many submissions against this proposal raising many issues including from dust and truck movements, but also concerns about what the resulting land would be used for/suitable for, and - critically - what effect a landfill would have on Auckland's underground water resources. In particular the large freshwater aquifers that underly much of Auckland and which are used by a few select organisations - including the Zoo - for their water supply.

This photo from Auckland Council's website shows the area in 1940. You can see a number of small quarry faces in the area.

This picture was taken in 1959. From time to time other activities have occurred on the site including storage of aggregate and storage of diesel fuel and lube oils and explosives.

This picture is dated 1966.

This one is dated 2001....

And this one is dated 2009.... I am at a loss to understand how Three Kings Quarry owner, Winstone Aggregates, was granted consent by the Auckland Regional Council a year and a half ago to fill the Mt Eden Road quarry - unlined and without a leachate collection system - with waste material that is permitted to contain elevated levels of contaminants including arsenic, copper, zinc and hydrocarbons. This and other related resource consent decisions have been appealed to the Environment Court. I understand this appeal is set down for a two week hearing beginning Monday, March the 7th The Mt Eden Road Quarry – also known as Three Kings Quarry - is above, and drains into, a large fresh water aquifer which is already a water source for some users, and which is a back-up drinking water source for Auckland in the event of a natural disaster affecting existing bulk water pipelines. The proposed Mt Eden Road quarry landfill project may result in Auckland’s aquifers becoming too contaminated over time to be used as a much-needed water source. Why should Auckland take that risk when industry best practice options exist to avoid it? If a natural disaster hit in Auckland – volcano or earthquake – good civil defence planning would be reliant upon Auckland’s underground water resources to meet the need for drinking water. Surely Auckland Council would not support any activities which might degrade the quality of Auckland’s underground water resources. And surely Watercare, whose duties include taking a leadership role in regard to Auckland's water resources - including underground resources - would be requiring this project to be cleaner than clean, and to adopt best practice. More later....