Fox River rubbish spread less than previously thought, council says

Wednesday, 10 April 2019

Flood water surges down the Fox River on the West Coast after extreme weather, in March 2019.

Westland District Council has downgraded its estimate of how far rubbish from an old rubbish dump on the West Coast has spread.

Heavy rainfall and flooding caused the historic Fox Glacier landfill to become exposed last month, with rubbish spilling out into the wider environment. The council had previously said the rubbish had spread about 300 kilometres along the coast from Okarito to Martins Bay in Fiordland.

However it now says, following aerial surveys, the rubbish only spread about 50km.

Volunteers help pick up rubbish on a West Coast beach after an old landfill was opened up in severe weather.

'Initial reports suggested rubbish from the Fox River Landfill was very widespread,' Westland District Council mayor Bruce Smith said.

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'However, aerial surveys during the last couple of days have confirmed the area affected is confined to about 50km of coastline, from approximately 10km south of the Fox River northward.'

Reports of rubbish on Fiordland beaches had been investigated and confirmed as not from the old Fox River landfill, but from a 'different source', he said.

NIWA marine geological processes programme leader Joshu Mountjoy said while some of the rubbish had washed up on beaches, a large amount would have floated offshore and be out of sight beneath the ocean surface.

'We know from recent studies that sediment from rivers is actively being moved into canyons on the West Coast and it is likely that a component of the Fox River landfill waste will end up in the deep ocean by the same processes.'

Smith said the cleanup was being co-ordinated by a specialist incident team from Maritime New Zealand.

There is also continued support from the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Department of Conservation, specialists from the Ministry for the Environment and the West Coast Regional Council.

'The Fox River and surrounds have been identified as the worst affected, with heavy items lodged in-river and through the bush and land surrounding it,' Smith said.

The cleanup of the mid and upper stretches of the river were too hazardous for volunteers to help with, he said.

'Teams of people familiar with the difficult conditions on the river and able to use specialised equipment will clear the rubbish in these areas.'

Volunteers were continuing to cleanup beaches north of Fox Glacier.

'It's great to see everyone mucking in to help us restore our wonderful natural environment,' Smith said.

People who wanted to help with the clean-up should contact foxlandfillresponse@westlanddc.govt.nz with the dates they were available and any specialised skills they might have.

Meanwhile, a stopbank in the Waiho River at Franz Josef which was destroyed in the flood is being rebuilt.

The Waiho River was building up at a rate of about 30 centimetres a year and flooding in the Westland town in March 2016 inundated a hotel and holiday park and forced the evacuation of 200 people.

There were a series of floodwalls along the river at Franz Josef, one of which on the south side of the river, dubbed by locals the Milton wall, was destroyed along with the Waiho Bridge after heavy rain on March 26 this year.

Residents living behind the wall appealed to the West Coast Regional Council to rebuild the wall. However, the council warned that stopbanks were not a long-term solution. Regional councillors decided in a meeting on Tuesday to rebuild the wall.

Chief executive Mike Meehan said the wall's design and cost was still being worked through, but he estimated the wall would be rebuilt within three months.

The cost would be covered by both insurance and Government subsidy, he said.

It would be cheaper to recover rock from the Waiho river than to transport it in, he said.