Letter to Watercare Board and CEO

Permission to pollute one of Auckland’s
critical underground water resources?


Mark Ford
Chief Executive
Watercare
2 Nuffield Street
Newmarket
Auckland 1023


Wednesday 2 March, 2011


Dear Mark,

I am writing to you because Watercare is responsible for providing Auckland with safe drinking water and I have recently become aware of a major issue for Auckland water supply. I am at a loss to understand how Three Kings Quarry owner, Winstone Aggregates, has been granted consent to fill the Mt Eden Road quarry, unlined and without a leachate system, with waste material that is permitted to contain elevated levels of contaminants including arsenic, copper, zinc, DDT and hydrocarbons.

This site is above, and drains into, a large fresh water aquifer from which water is already drawn by some (including Auckland Zoo), and which is a back-up drinking water source for Auckland in the event of a natural disaster, such as the one we have just seen in Christchurch.

Watercare is committed to ensuring the drinking water that Auckland households, businesses and schools receive is high quality and consistently complies with the requirements of the New Zealand Drinking Water Standards. And rightly so.

I note in your 2010 Statement of Corporate Intent the following objective which has been agreed by your stakeholders: “To provide leadership within the water industry and participate in public policy initiatives and statutory submissions.”

From my reading of your involvement in this central city landfill project, you are not opposed to it. You are tacitly endorsing the establishment and operation of a contaminated landfill which everybody agrees will drain into Auckland’s freshwater aquifer system, without any systems in place to prevent contaminants leaching into Auckland’s underground water resources. This is no less than permission to pollute one of Auckland’s critical back-up water supplies.

You will be acutely aware of the leachate collection and treatment duties that have been imposed on Watercare in regard to its proposed Puketutu landfill project. I find it hard to believe that the same sort of regulation isn’t being applied to the Three Kings Quarry. Where’s the consistancy? Watercare claims to be committed to “provide leadership” on Auckland’s water issues, yet there appears to be a lack of interest in protecting this important aquifer.

The proposed Mt Eden Road quarry landfill project may result in Auckland’s aquifers becoming too contaminated 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 – civil defence and indeed the people of Auckland would be heavily reliant upon Auckland’s underground water resources to meet the need for drinking water. As it stands, this landfill could seriously undermine Auckland’s ability to respond to a crisis.

There were many opposed submissions to this “consent to pollute” process including a wide range of community interests whose concerns have not been addressed. Concerns include the critical water issues outlined and relating to you, but also include noise, up to 750 trucks (many of them articulated) per day carrying fill to the quarry, dust, noise and traffic management issues.

As a key stakeholder in Auckland’s water industry, I believe you have a leadership obligation to the people of Auckland to participate fully in next week’s Environment Court hearing, to ensure that whatever happens in the Mt Eden Road quarry is best practice, and that it does not subject Auckland’s underground water resources to any risk of contamination.

It is disappointing that more vocal leadership on this critical regional resource has not been forthcoming. I have also raised this issue with the Mayor and Auckland Councillors.

Please respond to this issue immediately and publicly reassure Aucklanders that this important asset will not be contaminated.


Yours sincerely,



Joel Cayford

Please note: This letter is to be copied by post to Watercare Board members.

Auckland Aquifers! What's the big deal?

It's hard to find good graphics or geological cross sections of Auckland. So here's one from somewhere else. The idea's the same though. It's all about groundwater, and underground water systems. When it rains, a lot of water goes into the ground. It percolates through rock and soil till it reaches the water table - the natural level of water you find when you dig down. This area is sometimes called an "unconfined aquifer" because that water flows sideways and downward. These are underground water flows. They are slow. Auckland's volcanic rock is fractured and cracked and contains lots of caves and spaces which are full of water. Many of these water volumes are "confined". Full of quite pure water. It's pure because it has flowed through rock to get there. Sort of like a natural filtration system. The volcanic rock beneath that is called bedrock.

This picture is from Hastings District Council website. Almost all of Hastings City's water comes from underground water sources. From aquifers. The graphic shows the water cycle. Evaporation, rain in the hills, some overland flow in the Heretaunga Plains, and then the water seeps underground, and percolates through and around various rock layers, till it gets into quite deep aquifers. Hastings Council pumps the city's water up from these aquifers, and then reticulates it to users.

Imagine this graphic is of Auckland. City in the background, soil on the surface (imagine those cacti are Pohutakawa Trees...). The water table is marked. There's a graphic showing rock and soil near the surface. Then beneath that is a saturated area full of groundwater. Below that is what is called the "upper aquifer", and so on...

Now let's imagine we dig a quarry into this. I show it here as "Quarry 1". It's reasonably shallow to start with. Stays above the water table mostly, so it is easy to dig the rock out (aggregate) without being troubled by water. That's why it's got a flat bottom....

But then the quarry operator wants more aggregate, and gets permission to pump out any groundwater that flows into the quarry. This means the quarry operator can dig down much deeper into the saturated groundwater system. He pumps out water, and digs out more rock. In doing so, of course the floor of the quarry gets nearer and nearer to the top of the upper aquifer. It means that there is much less rock between the bottom of the Quarry (Quarry 2) and the top of the aquifer.

So now the Quarry operator finds there's no more rock available to dig out. He's gone as far as he can go. The quarry can't expand outwards because by now there are houses all around it. So now he seeks permission to fill the quarry with cleanfill. People pay to dump their cleanfill in his empty quarry hole. You can see a purple pile of fill in this graphic at the bottom of the old quarry. There's no need now for the operator to pump groundwater from the quarry hole, and so groundwater seeps in from the walls of the quarry and rain comes down from above.

This water percolates through the cleanfill, leaching out anything that is mobile or soluble. This water has only a short distance to travel now, from the bottom of the quarry, before it gets into the top of the aquifer. Once it's in the aquifer it's free to flow wherever the aquifer water movements take it. The problem comes when there are contaminants dumped with the "cleanfill". Best practice suggests that cleanfill should be just that - the quarry operator should really be replacing like with like. Take out inert rock - put back inert rock. Then there will be confidence there is no risk to the aquifers. No health risks to those who draw water from the aquifer for drinking, or for emergency supplies. That's the big deal.

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....