Taylorville landfill: Residents frustrated over foul odour and ‘wall of gravel’

The Taylorville Resource Park from the air, with the Greymouth water treatment plant and the Grey River to the right. Photo / Greymouth Star

Residents are demanding “accountability” for the Taylorville Resource Park landfill near Greymouth and its foul smell and “wall of gravel”.

Taylorville Road residents recently met with the West Coast Regional Council to air their concerns.

However, what will be done about the odour from the Greymouth site, and the wider issue of the controversial landfill’s future, remained unclear.

The private landfill has been closed since August 3, when two workers at the site were overcome by gas.

Residents of the semi-rural neighbourhood asked how the landfill, close to the Greymouth water treatment station, could gain council consent in 2021.

Adrian Van Dorp, whose four-hectare block is less than 200 metres below the landfill boundary, said the whole mess was “dreadful”.

However, he said the meeting fronted by the council was a step in the right direction.

The impact on residents’ health and the future of their properties was particularly stressful, he said.

“The people down the bottom haven’t been here very long - they must be dreading what they’ve walked into, and they’ve got little kids,” Van Dorp said.

He said the dust and bad smell, as well as a “wall of gravel” built up on the edge of the dumpsite, worried him.

“We’re at the bottom of that whole thing, so if it blows off the top, it’s straight down into my land.”

It was particularly disappointing as he’d been living on his lifestyle block for decades, with a vision of retiring there.

“We’ll be more positive when they say they’ve shut it down.

“I know they’ve got to work through due process - it’s more complex than what it is on the surface,” Van Dorp said.

Another close resident, who asked not to be named, said all the neighbours should have been asked for their say, not just the landowner of the landfill site, prior to consent being given.

“We’re all affected. We’re all over the smell, the rubbish being brought in and where [the landfill] is … None of us were notified.”

A resident, who asked not to be named, said the “toxic stuff” is above the water supply and has to go.

“The whole thing is [about] accountability.”

The risk of the landfill collapsing in a natural disaster and affecting Greymouth’s water supply did not bear thinking about, she said.

The resident initially assumed a subdivision was being developed, but had subsequently “come to terms” with the landfill - until the problems started.

“It’s been pretty bad some days - the smell - but in the end, it’s not about the smell, it’s about what is in there,” she said.

The meeting was organised after residents wrote an open letter to the council last month.

A resident said the meeting had been reasonably positive and the council was doing what it could.

Van Dorp said the Grey District Council had done its best to advocate for them, given the worry over the public water supply.

“I hope they keep it to the floor. I would imagine they would have more clout than I would. The whole thing is dumb-arse, if you ask me.”

Taylorville Resource Park has been approached for comment.

West Coast Regional Council slapped an abatement notice on the on the Taylorville Resource Park for a foul sulphurous odour in July.

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