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An Auckland trucking company wants to dump millions of cubic meters of industrial waste in Huntly, but the locals are unwilling to do so. They say that the creation of a new landfill will destroy the last swimming lake in the city. In an ongoing series, The Last Lake dives deep into the subject and finds a company unwilling to answer questions and a staunch group of locals determined to fire the proposal.
Hep Vitasovich remembers the “devil’s water” that flowed into Lake Waahi.
A cloudy liquid, its chemical stench shoots Vitasovich’s nostrils 40 years later, his face wrinkles.
“You could smell phenol, you could always smell phenol.
“We didn’t really know what it was, but we knew it was toxic.”
CHRISTEL YARDLEY / Things
Hep Vitasovich on Lake Waahi. Vitasovich fears what could happen to the lake if a proposed construction waste site is allowed at the Huntly quarry near Lake Puketirini.
Vitasovich believes that Gleeson & Cox’s proposal to create a construction waste dump at Huntly Quarry could contaminate Lake Puketirini.
The South Auckland-based trucking and civil construction company, with the motto “We move mountains”, has requested a clean and managed landfill at the Huntly quarry, collecting up to two million cubic meters of construction waste that could include concrete, clay, asbestos, acid soils, peat, and marine sediments.
Part of the site will discharge into a stream that flows into Lake Puketirini, the other parts will discharge into streams that flow into the Waikato River.
A Huntly miner for decades, Vitasovich worked alongside the Rotowaro carbonization plant since 1981.
The “old carbo” is now a rusted industrial relic teetering amid ponds of green stew, about 15 minutes from Huntly. It was previously called one of the most toxic sites in the country.
The plant made a carbon product called carbons that emitted phenol.
“They used to try to shine [the phenol] Turn it off and burn it, but they were doing too much and they couldn’t, so they started putting it in ponds. “
Workers on the night shift change would open the valves allowing the toxic liquid to discharge directly into the Awaroa stream, which leads to Lake Waahi.
“It was deadly, deadly to anything, and it flowed into Waahi.”
CHRISTEL YARDLEY / Things
The Rotowaro carbonization plant near Huntly operated between the 1930s and 1980s. Toxic wastewater from the plant entered Lake Waahi.
The Waikato Regional Council records the toxic discharge from the Rotowaro carbonization plant containing phenols, ammonia, and hydrocarbons, degrading the Awaroa Creek and damaging Lake Waahi downstream.
The plant was left empty after a fire and was closed in 1985.
Vitasovich’s eyes water when he thinks of the Waikato lakes: “It’s devastating, buddy.”
“In most of the lakes here you can’t put your dog,” said Vitasovich, “there are signs that say don’t put your dog in them, he will die.
CHRISTEL YARDLEY / Things
Lake Waahi is a hypertrophic lake in Huntly. This means that it has the worst water quality on the scale.
The largest lakes in the Waikato Territorial District (between Tamahere, south of Hamilton, to Port Waikato) include Lakes Waahi, Hakanoa, Whangape, and Waikare.
Waikato Regional Council freshwater scientist Deniz Ozkundakci said all of those lakes are hypertrophic.
That means they are in the worst category for water quality on the scale.
“All of these lakes are extremely nutrient-enriched, have very poor clarity and high concentrations of algae in the water.”
Warm water temperatures and calm conditions often exacerbate nutrients, forming blooms of toxic blue-green algae called cyanobacteria.
Algae pose a risk to humans and especially pets, and such bad health warnings are issued in summer.
One Lake Waikato, Lake Waikare near Te Kauwhata, has health advisories throughout the year.
Lake Waahi has actually been free of algal blooms for several years and technically swimmable, Ozkundakci said.
He had no data on how the coal industry had affected Lake Waahi’s water quality.
But he confirmed that Lake Puketirini is the cleanest of the lakes.
“Lake Puketirini would be categorized as mesotrophic, which is medium quality water.
“Compared to the other lakes, you’re talking about jumping four categories on the scale … for some indicators, that’s a ten-fold improvement in water quality.”
CHRISTEL YARDLEY / Things
Health advisories are regularly issued in the summer for different Waikato lakes due to the influx of toxic algal blooms.
Lake Puketirini is 64 meters deep and operated as a coal mine from 1954 until the 1990s.
All the work that Vitasovich did on the lake is etched on his face: over the years, he dug up layers of earth to reach the coal and carried tons of marshy soil to the quarry.
He then put in piles for the boat ramps, carved walkway paths, and planted greenery around the lake’s edges.
It took 11 years for the dusty sink to fill with rainwater and the occasional overflow from Waahi.
CHRISTEL YARDLEY / Things
Lake Puketirini is an artificial lake that used to be a coal mine. It took 11 years to fill with rainwater and occasional overflows from the lake next door.
“[At Puketirini] you can go there in the summer and swim and lay in it and watch everyone else enjoy it. “
Because the lake doesn’t drain anywhere, it can’t be fixed if something goes wrong, Vitasovich said.
A summary proposal for the managed landfill site, provided to neighbors, indicates that approximately 1,500 meters of wetland will be cleared for the site.
The company proposes that the effects on the waterways will be minor, but the habitat of native birds and bats could be threatened.
In an email to Stuff, Mark Pelan, chief financial officer for Gleeson & Cox, said water quality will “improve” with clean, managed landfill.
He did not confirm Stuff what materials the company wants to bring to the site.
“Large areas of land will be agreed to protect and increase wetlands and regenerate native shrubs.
“We are also working hard to protect the habitat of the Pekepeka bat.”
CHRISTEL YARDLEY / Things
Hep Vitasovich collects watercress in the stream that connects the proposed construction waste dump with Lake Puketirini.
Planners at the company, Paua Planning, say that any materials will be pre-tested before reaching the site and that the treatment ponds will ensure that the water is clean.
The water discharge will only occur after a rain, passing through the wetland before reaching the lake. It will be cleaner than what currently runs off farms or eroded soil into waterways, planners said.
Former Niwa scientist Chris Hickey reviewed the summary proposal for managed fill, not the full resource consent request.
CHRISTEL YARDLEY / Things
Lake Puketirini next to Lake Waahi. Huntly residents say this is the last time the lake’s people swim, practice waka ama, learn to dive and water ski because the water is still clean.
The proposal included “red flags” on what could be accepted: acidic soils, marine sediments, peat and elements such as copper, chromium arsenic (treated wood).
If not handled properly, acidic materials could dissolve reinforcing steel and construction debris, potentially coating nearby streams in “horrible brown trash.”
Hickey said the company may have appropriate measures in place, or consent to the appeal could eliminate the risks.
Vitasovich, on the other hand, fears the worst.
“In my life, that’s what happened, the lakes have died, by wrong decisions, and I think this is a very wrong decision.”
