Mayor upset over city 'timebomb'

By ANNE BESTON environment reporter

A hazardous-wastes site at risk of a giant explosion has been ordered to shut down as questions are raised over why the Manukau City Council opposed the closure.

Mayor Sir Barry Curtis said he was at a loss to know why council lawyers sided with wastes company Nuplex Environmental.

"The last thing I want is a timebomb in the middle of East Tamaki and I will make sure this council abides by the direction from the court," Sir Barry said.

A top New Zealand engineer, Auckland University's director of Sustainability Engineering and Research Ron McDowall, also delivered a broadside to the council.

"Frankly they should be ashamed of themselves."

Late last year, property owners Lewis Holdings, which owns an industrial property next to the Nuplex Environmental site on Neales Rd, obtained an earlier order to have it shut down. But Manukau City Council allowed the facility to keep working after Nuplex lawyers challenged the order.

In his investigation on behalf of Lewis Holdings, Mr McDowall warned that flammable wastes such as ethanol and solvents stored at the Nuplex facility could be ignited by other activities on the site, including an oil-fired burner. The resulting industrial explosion would be the biggest in Australasia and probably cause injury and death, he said.

Environment Court Judge David Sheppard has now ordered the shutdown of the site by Wednesday until new fire safety equipment is installed in four to six weeks.

He ruled public safety came before potential financial losses to the company of $100,000 a month.

He also raised the council's role in the affair, saying Nuplex Environmental was willing to run the risk of a fire "and it seems the city council is willing to allow it to do so".

Manukau City Council environment and hazards manager Kevin Jackson backed arguments from Nuplex that the plant was safer if allowed to continue and that there would be problems in finding alternative waste-disposal sites.

Judge Sheppard dismissed those arguments.

The company's managing director, John Hirst, said the potential risk from fire was very low.