By CATHY ARONSON
New Zealand's largest rubbish dump will be built in north Waikato.
The Environment Court gave it the go-ahead yesterday, despite a four-year fight by Te Kauwhata residents opposing the 87ha megadump, which borders the Waikato River.
The Environment Court dismissed the eight appeals against the dump, known as
the Hampton Downs landfill and owned by EnviroWaste Service and Northern Disposal Systems.
The dump will take 30 million cu m of solid waste during the next 25 years.
Up to 400 trucks would travel off State Highway 1 along Hampton Downs Rd each day.
Two-thirds of the rubbish would come from Auckland; the remainder from Waikato and Bay of Plenty.
Neighbour and Environment Court appellant Wendy Finlayson said the noise and sight of the dump would destroy the rural landscape, environment and property values.
Ms Finlayson had also told the Environment Court that a large dump catering for waste outside the region was against the Waikato District Council's district plan.
She said EnviroWaste could not prove it could dispose of the toxic leachate to the Mangere sewage plant long-term.
Auckland's WaterCare had signed a temporary agreement to take up to 30 tankerloads of leachate a day.
EnviroWaste project manager Ray Lambert said the consents were renewable, meaning it must keep up with new management techniques.
Other appellants, including the Land, Air, Water Association, were concerned the landfill would leach waste through the groundwater into the Waikato River, 500m away.
Local iwi raised cultural concerns that the land was Waahi Tapu, or sacred.
In his 145-page decision, Judge R. G. Whiting said "no health risk is expected to arise" and "the risk of contaminants escaping to the Waikato River or any adjacent stream feeding to that river was so improbable as to be able to be completely discounted".
The judgment included extra monitoring conditions.
Mr Lambert said the landfill should open before EnviroWaste's Rosedale and Greenmount landfills closed in 2002 and 2003.
But a Waikato District Council consent condition says it cannot open the landfill until Transit builds a $4 million interchange off State Highway 1 onto Hampton Downs Rd. Transit has stopped construction of the interchange because the expressway is sinking.
Mr Lambert said he was talking with Transit.
