The 15-year saga over Mapua's toxic site has ended, with a decision to go ahead with the $6.5 million clean-up.
Commissioners have granted all seven resource consents allowing revolutionary technology to be used in the clean-up, which is expected to take 18 months to two years to complete.
The decision comes more
than a month after a three-day hearing considered views for and against the method proposed for decontaminating the 3.4ha former Fruitgrowers Chemical Company site.
The pesticide factory opened in the 1930s and was closed in 1988. Opposition over how best to remediate the land, named by the Environment Ministry as New Zealand's worst contaminated site, has dragged councils and the community through years of debate.
Mapua and Ruby Bay Residents and Ratepayers Association chairwoman Wilma Tansley said the decision was "wonderful news", and despite some residents' opposition to the clean-up, everyone had been fair.
"People feel they have been listened to and everyone has had a chance to have their say.
"I can understand why some people have reservations about the clean-up, but the site has been such a blight on the area for such a long time," Mrs Tansley said.
Most who made submissions to the hearing supported the clean-up, while those against wanted more information on noise levels and possible side- effects from the soil treatment process.
Australian firm Thiess Services has been contracted by the Tasman District Council to manage the clean-up, using a mechano-chemical dehalogenation method, which combines heat and chemical treatment of the poisoned soil at a plant on site.
The council has committed $2 million toward the cost of the clean-up and the remainder is to come from a recently created Government fund for fixing contaminated sites.
- NZPA
Herald Feature: Conservation and Environment
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