Whirinaki timber kiln plan scrapped

UNITED: First Union organiser Mike McNab (seated centre) listening as an environmental consultant addressed last year's public meeting called over the mill concerns at Whirinaki. PHOTO/FILE

A kiln installed at Whirinaki mill north of Napier four years ago as part of a $2.5 million thermally-modified timber project has been shut down without ever starting production, because of health and safety risks.

Pan Pacific Forest Products' decision was confirmed yesterday by managing director Doug Ducker, having already conceded in a letter to staff and residents near the State Highway 2 plant the issues can't be resolved using the plant that had been installed.

It will be dismantled and converted to a drying unit, with the company investigating a proposal for a new plant incorprating different technology to meet the demand for new added-value TMT product.

The decision was received with both relief and dismay by First Union Hawke's Bay organiser Mike McNab, with members comprising almost half of about 375 staff at the site, and resident Glen Kohlis, who as a Napier Port worker appreciates the huge numbers of other jobs reliant on the operation of the mill but who had to fight against the use of the kiln amid reported illness at the plant and in the neighbourhood and the possibility people could be exposed to toxic emissions from formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, formic acid, acetic acid, methanol and terpenes.

Mr McNab said: "We've been at this for three-and-a-half years, and for the company to come to the conclusion that engineering could not give the it the security needed to make it safe proved our point."

Mr Kohlis said: "It was the only outcome for us, but we are annoyed we ever had to go through this process. We should never have been in the position where we had to jump up and down. We got to the point where it was being tested and putting people's health at risks."

Pan Pac's investment was announced in mid-2014, but was soon in trouble with fears over toxic gases emitted in testing using the new kiln and a secondary burner.

Early in 2016 four workers required medical treatment, 85 staff went on strike, staff and contractors were provided with a written reference for doctors if they had symptoms which could be linked to breathing emissions.

WorkSafe NZ also issued a prohibition notice stopping the plant from being put into use for any purpose other than safe testing.

In the letter the company said that while it still wanted to proceed with TMT production it had decided there were "too many difficulties with the current plant". It would work on a proposal for a completely separate new kiln incorporating different technology, taking care also with the location of the plant.

"In other words," said Mr Kohlis, "they're going to go through the process they should have done the first time."

Mr McNab said lives and jobs had been put at risk, and it was when he saw children playing nearby during a walk one Sunday morning he knew "something had to be done."

"The union has proven its community value," he said.