Taranaki iwi Ngāti Mutunga wants 1000 truckloads of toxic removed from region

Twenty thousand tonnes of contaminated waste has built up at Remediation NZ's Urutī site.

Ngāti Mutunga wants thousands of tonnes of polluting industrial waste removed from Taranaki and properly disposed of in a landfill.

For more than 20 years, Remediation New Zealand has received commercial waste — including oil and gas drilling mud and poultry farm waste — at remote Urutī northeast of New Plymouth.

Instead of being composted, a 20,000-tonne stockpile has built up containing arsenic, hydrocarbons, chemical additives, and unauthorised treated-timber sawdust.

The Environment Court is considering the future of the site, and on Monday the iwi told the court it didn’t want the waste buried on site.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Mutunga kaiwhakahaere Mitchell Ritai said they had been reluctant to let the waste become a problem for others.

“It’s against the tikanga of Ngāti Mutunga for waste generated within our rohe (area) to be shipped outside to become a problem for other hapū or iwi,” Ritai said.

But the iwi had concluded the waste dumped in its territory hadn’t originated there and should be taken to the Hampton Downs landfill in Waikato.

“There have been some informal discussions with iwi and hapū in that area … nothing formal but the important part for us was being able to reach out.”

Two years ago Taranaki Regional Council refused to renew Remediation NZ’s resource consents, citing leaks and spills harming water quality and ecology, as well as putrid air discharges.

The company appealed the consent rejection and can keep running the site until the case grinds through the overloaded Environment Court.

Last July the company told the court it would prefer to “encapsulate” the waste, entombing it forever on the site.

The council estimated 1000 truckloads needed to be moved, whether the burial happened on site or somewhere else.

Ritai said despite meetings with Remediation NZ, the iwi was still in the dark about on-site burial.

“We haven’t really been consulted on what that includes and we haven’t seen any information to be able to provide a position on that.”

The waste site drains to the Haehanga Stream, which flows into the Mimitangiātua River.

Rūnanga chairman Jamie Tuuta explained the Mimitangiātua is an ancestral awa for Ngāti Mutunga.

“One of the original names of the river is Te Wai o Mihirau — an ancestor that myself and many in this room descend from.”

Tuuta said an ancestor placing their name on a waterway speaks about mana and relationship with people and place.

Later the river gained a second name from another tupuna, Mimitangiātua.

“Mimitangiātua is fundamentally important to our whakapapa, to our identity, it is inextricably linked to who we are.”

Tuuta said a rāhui on the river — forbidding swimming, drinking and gathering kai — had to remain until the site was clear and safe.

“What is happening to our waterway is a real issue affecting the wellbeing of our people.”

Former iwi environment officer Marlene Benson said the iwi wanted the site restored so water leaving the site was as clean as when it entered, making the land safe for people to live on.

“Safe for people to grow their food, to use the water, to be in the river and … safe to be used for cultural purposes, say using plants from there for rongoā (medicine).”

Benson said Ngāti Mutunga had a responsibility of manaakitanga — to take care of all people in its rohe.

But contaminated soil has already been found in places supposedly cleared and restored with clean fill.

“The importance of this being done well is not just for Ngāti Mutunga, it is for the people that live in that community and the people that come onto that land when Remediation NZ goes.

“We have a responsibility that those people do not find any nasty buried surprises.”

Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.