The Redvale landfill at Dairy Flat has been open since 1993 and takes about half of all of Auckland's landfill waste.
The Redvale landfill at Dairy Flat has been open since 1993 and takes about half of all of Auckland's landfill waste.
Parents at Dairy Flat School oppose extending Redvale landfill’s licence, claiming health risks from odours and pollution.
Waste Management NZ says the landfill poses no health risk and conducts regular safety tests.
The company seeks fast-track approval to extend operations, citing Auckland’s rubbish crisis if closed.
Dairy Flat School students could spend the next decade potentially at risk from noxious odours if Auckland’s biggest tip gains fast-track approval to stay open eight extra years, parents believe.
The community school and its parents said they were rallying public support in a “last chance” bid to stop Redvalelandfill from extending its 2028 operating licence out to 2036.
Waste Management NZ said independent tests showed its Redvale landfill operations posed no health risk to nearby residents.
It believed Auckland was in a rubbish crisis and 600,000 tonnes of annual trash would have nowhere to go if its facility was forced to close in 2028.
However, principal Katie Hills said the waste that went into the tip, about 900m from her Dairy Flat School, emitted foul odours she feared could be getting into tank water her students drank.
Parents also posted this week to a Dairy Flat School Events Facebook page, saying they believed children were “breathing in landfill pollutants” every day.
“Imagine your child playing at morning tea, inhaling landfill gases – while Waste Management denies the smell exists,” the post said.
The issue was now urgent, parents said, because Waste Management planned to stop accepting public submissions on its plans by November 7.
The Redvale landfill at Dairy Flat has been open since 1993 and takes about half of all of Auckland's landfill waste.
After that the company hoped its application for planning approval to keep the tip open longer would be heard by a specialist fast-track panel.
But given the fast-track process was set up by the Government to provide a speedy planning approval process for big infrastructure projects, Dairy Flat School principal Hills worried the panel would largely shut local voices out from having a say.
She said she had complained regularly about odours and other issues caused by the tip but claimed Waste Management had rarely taken the issues seriously.
She was concerned about the quality of air her students breathed and what was going into the school’s drinking water, given it was collected in tanks onsite as the school was outside Auckland’s piped network.
“What’s in the air, it’s landing on our roof, that’s going into the [drinking water] tank, so that’s a concern,” she said.
Hills said the proposal was more akin to building a new landfill because it involved digging out new sections of land closer to the school.
She also believed claims Auckland was in a “rubbish crisis” were false, saying waste could be taken to other plants after Redvale closed in 2028.
Parents in the Facebook post said Waste Management had the opportunity to send more waste to the Whitford landfill after 2028.
Waste Management managing director Evan Maehl says the Redvale landfill has met all environment test standards, proving it was operating safely. Photo / Supplied
However, it chose to instead seek to extend the Redvale site’s operations because Whitford residents had been quicker and louder in getting organised to oppose extra rubbish and trucks heading their way, the parents said.
“Our voices – the ones most affected – were barely heard,” they said.
“Please get loud about this, our kids can’t fight this – but we can,” the parents said in the post as they called on members of the public to write submissions opposing Redvale’s extension.
Auckland Council’s environmental monitoring manager Robert Laulala said his team was aware of the Dairy Flat community’s concerns.
Council compliance staff had undertaken multiple assessments in the area, he said. They had “been unable to find sufficient evidence of offensive or objectionable odour beyond the designated odour boundary”.
Waste Management managing director Evan Maehl said there were “no fumes or emissions at toxic levels” affecting the community.
At the Dairy Flat School’s request, Waste Management’s team had recently tested its drinking water.
“The results confirmed it is safe,” Maehl told the Herald, while saying the results had not yet been passed on to Hills and the school.
He also said the site was subject to regular independent air and water testing.
“Every result to date has shown full compliance with environmental standards, confirming the landfill is operating safely.”
Soil testing at sites around the landfill was also “well within public health parameters”, he said.
Maehl acknowledged “odour can occasionally be noticed in the wider area”.
“We take this very seriously and we’re continuing to strengthen how we manage it,” he said.
He said recent improvements included laying extra soil depth over landfill, employing a “fulltime odour specialist” to handle complaints and deploying “odour cannons”.
Other mitigation measures included keeping rotting or smelly waste more than 500m away from nearby homes and reducing the size of the “working face” or the part of the tip where waste is tipped into.
Waste Management NZ said keeping Redvale running beyond 2028 was the best solution for an urgent problem.
It started working on a replacement site 17 years ago, saying it reviewed more than 75 potential sites before choosing the Auckland Regional Landfill site in Wayby Valley and applying for consent in 2019.
However, that planning approval was tied up in a legal appeals process, meaning the new landfill was not expected to open until the mid-2030s, Maehl said.
With Redvale managing about 600,000 tonnes – sometimes up to 800,000 – each year, that left a big question mark about how the city would dispose of about half its annual rubbish, he said.
The only other landfill capable of taking household waste in Auckland was the Whitford Landfill, which Waste Management owned 50:50 with Auckland Council, Maehl said.
An independent report into the issue found that rather than seeking consent to divert the trash to Whitford, it was a better choice to have landfills on both sides of the harbour bridge.
That reduced transport and provided “resilience if either site is disrupted”, he said.
As a result, Waste Management was seeking approval to reconsent Redvale Landfill through the Government’s fast-track consenting pathway.
“WM considers fast-track to be the best pathway that can realistically deliver the interim solution before Redvale Landfill closes,” the company said in a report.
School parents remained unconvinced, especially by reports about the odours.
“When we complain, Waste Management tells us: ‘After our investigation, no odour was present’,” they said in the October 21 Facebook post.
“Meanwhile, residents smell it throughout the area, non-residents smell it driving through and we can smell it in our children’s playground.”
