Northland Regional Council eyes enforcement action over Ballance sulphur spill

The sulphur spill stretched 44km to the gates of the Ballance fertiliser site in Port Rd, Whangarei, Photo / Michael Cunningham

The Northland Regional Council is expected to decide by next week whether any enforcement action will follow the 44km-long spillage of liquid sulphur from Ruakaka to Whangārei.

An equipment failure in a tanker caused 400kg of pure sulphur used in fertiliser mix to spill along State Highway 1 and into Port Rd, Whangārei, about 6.30pm last Thursday.

The tanker belonged to Ballance which was transporting the sulphur from the Marsden Pt Oil Refinery to Port Rd when a small leak resulted in the spillage.

NRC group manager regulator services Colin Dall yesterday said the council expected to make a decision on enforcement action in the next week or so.

NRC staff inspected sections of the road affected by the spill and observed some residual sulphur on the road after being notified of the spill on Friday.

The sulphur was non-toxic and motorists have been advised they should wash it off if the bright yellow substance came into contact with their vehicles.

Ballance has been transporting liquid sulphur from the refinery for 32 years and it was the first time a spill happened.

NZ Transport Agency workers swept the road and employed Hydrotech to waterblast and watercut the solid sulphur from the road surface particularly at the
intersections where the truck had stopped, allowing a build-up of the sulphur to occur.