Fox River 'horrorscape' clean-up huge task for DOC, NZ Defence Force, volunteers

Four months on, enough rubbish has been gathered from south Westland to fill 270 hefty wool sack-like bags weighing half a tonne each. Photo / Department of Conservation

Despite a massive clean-up operation, it's unlikely the rubbish-strewn Fox River will ever be restored to its pristine former state, with future floods there expected to churn up more waste.

The picturesque South Westland river became the scene of an environmental disaster in March, when floods washed tens of thousands of tonnes of waste from an old disused landfill.

Four months on, enough had been gathered from the formerly pristine to fill 270 hefty wool sack-like bags weighing half a tonne each.

Volunteers working alongside Defence Force and Department of Conservation (DOC) staff have poured in more than 1700 hours of hard work.

Forest and Bird's local regional advocacy manager, Nicky Snoyink, couldn't say whether enough could be done before spring rains arrived and caused more headaches.

"We've had an incredible turnout and we just need to keep up that momentum."

Snoyink said she'd heard the scene described as a "horror-scape".

Nearly 60 NZDF personnel have been involved in the clean-up operation. Photo / Department of Conservation

Everything from countless pieces of plastic to old tyres had gushed out of the old Fox Glacier landfill, which had been eroded by the river despite being long sealed.

Along with the banks and bed of the river, waste had found its way on to some 64km of coastline – and likely into a deep canyon off the coast home to important marine ecosystems.

The operation had been split into three zones: about 100 volunteers have been working in Zone 1, or the area 5km downstream of the landfill where most of the spilt rubbish was scattered.

The two Government agencies were meanwhile working on a plan to tackle the rubbish in Zone 3, which took in a 1279ha stretch of coast and would prove harder to reach.

An RNZAF A109 light utility helicopter was due to fly out bags of rubbish and transport teams to these places this week.

New Zealand Defence Force and Department of Conservation staff are taking part in the clean-up. Photo / Department of Conservation

Among the 58 Defence Force personnel involved was RNZN Able Marine Technician Liam Horner, who said the sight of rubbish almost everywhere felt daunting initially.

"After working for several hours I would often look behind me and see how much rubbish I had picked up and I feel better."

But it was unlikely the Fox would ever be what it was before the floods.

"It's a pristine river and it's never seen an event like this before," Snoyink said.

"And it's a dramatic river because it feeds out of the Southern Alps, right out of Fox Glacier, and is full of all of these terraces and riverbed boulders that get shifted each time there's a big flood."

Everything from the countless pieces of plastic to old tyres had gushed out of the old Fox Glacier landfill. Photo / Department of Conservation

Tragically, many of those boulders would have trapped untold amounts of rubbish – which would only get gradually released during floods in years to come.

"The volunteers can't possibly pull all of that stuff out, and it will just get thrown up again."

'Every council needs to know the risk'

DOC incident controller Owen Kilgour said while the areas that had been cleaned did appear to be pristine once again, because of the moving riverbed, it would not be possible to remove all of the rubbish.

This map shows the three zones that "Operation Tidy Fox" has been split into. Image / Supplied

"Good progress is being made on the clean-up at present, with high numbers of volunteers and assistance and equipment from the NZDF," he told the Herald.

"The end date for the clean-up will depend on how we are able to sustain this incredible effort. We need to maximise the number of volunteers while the NZDF are here, which is until the middle of August."

Kilgour said it was unclear what harm had been caused to local wildlife, but plastic was known to affect birds, marine mammals and other marine life.

It's unclear how much of the rubbish has been lost into the marine environment. Photo / Supplied

Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage also said it would be hard to say when or if the river might be restored.

"The waste uncovered in Fox highlights the urgency of the Government's work programme to recover more materials and reduce the amount of rubbish that ends up in landfills."

It also pointed to a threat posed by dozens of other such sites around the country.

A Local Government New Zealand Report assessing the impacts of climate change found the Auckland region held 88 old landfill sites which would be exposed with half a metre of sea level rise.

Some of the rubbish washed up in the wake of the big spill. Photo / Supplied

Otago, Nelson and Canterbury also had multiple closed landfills at risk.

"And they're only the ones we know about," Snoyink said.

"Every council around the country needs to know exactly what the risk is here – and they need to be communicating with central Government the scale of that risk, so that an appropriate response can be initiated."

But Sage said councils had responsibility for landfills, and this disaster highlighted the need for them to work to prevent a repeat.

"Climate Change Minister James Shaw is leading wider work on how we can best plan for the impact climate change will have on infrastructure across the country, and this includes the risks of more landfills being exposed by sea level rise and more frequent and extreme flooding."

Along with the banks and bed of the Fox River, waste had found its way on to some 64km of coastline - and likely into a deep canyon off the coast home to important marine ecosystems. Photo / Supplied

Snoyink added the catastrophe should have also left authorities immediately able to respond to such large-scale events.

While she said the initial response had been good, it soon emerged that local authorities didn't have the capacity to handle the operation – and it wasn't until after months of deliberation that the Government stepped in.

"From a broader perspective, the overall response was pretty poor. In my view, we should have been ready to go straight away."