Auckland Airport jet fuel crisis not likely to affect wildlife - DOC
Monday, 18 September 2017
A jet fuel leak that has affected dozens of Auckland Airport flights is not expected to pose a significant risk to the environment, the Department of Conservation says.
Up to 80,000 litres of fuel are believed to have been leaked from a pipeline near Ruakaka in Northland after it was damaged by a digger.
The 25cm diameter pipeline carries jet fuel from the Marsden Point Refinery to Wiri in south Auckland and can carry up to 400,000 litres of finished product every hour.
The leak site is just 1km from the Ruakaka Wildlife Refuge, which is home to many protected and critically endangered bird species.
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Those include the fairy tern and the rare Bullers' shearwater.
Forest and Bird said it was watching the situation closely and awaiting environmental reports from independent sources.
Northland conservation manager Dean Baigent-Mercer said he was concerned groundwater contamination could lead to the Ruakaka river area.
The leak was located 'very, very close' to the river, and could potentially put the local ecosystem at risk, he said.
Baigent-Mercer said this week was particularly significant, as it was the one week of the year when thousands of kuaka, or godwits, complete their 11,000km journey from Alaska, hungry and ready to feed from the river.
The area also doubles as a breeding area for the endangered New Zealand dotterel and variable oystercatcher, he said.
'It's a really special place there, so we're concerned.'
A DOC spokeswoman said the department had been working closely with the Northland Regional Council on clean-up efforts.
She said though the spill was roughly 1km from the refuge, it was 'well-contained'.
'We don't think there is any risk at this stage,' she said, but added that DOC was on standby if needed.
In a statement released on Monday morning, the regional council said a number of dams and booms had been installed to prevent off-site contamination, and to contain, isolate and separate any fuel from the water.
Containment and recovery was being led by Refining NZ, and the council had been carrying out daily checks of the clean-up operation, including supervising refinery sampling.
The council would also be sampling groundwater bores, but did not believe those would be impacted due to the 'prompt' containment, recovery and clean-up.
'At this stage, council is satisfied the refining company acted promptly and appropriately, both in its notification of – and subsequent response to – the leak,' the statement said.
An investigation into the circumstances leading up to the leak would be carried out, and the council would then consider what further action was appropriate.
That could include a potential prosecution under the Resource Management Act.
Refining NZ spokesman Greg McNeill said the company would be recovering jet fuel that had run into a culvert area and taking it back to Marsden Point for reprocessing, so it could be reused.
No other waterways were affected, the company said in a tweet.
Contaminated soil was being removed for treatment, and it would be replaced with clean soil.