Thursday, May 21, 2009

Sort it out later? Later has arrived!

Imagine this... you create a landfill and after many years one of the faces of that landfill erodes. This face is being eroded by the sea and is 60 meters long and it is in Hampden. Are we just going to let all of the landfill erode into the sea and pollute the north otago beaches down to Moeraki?

"Hampden residents have had enough of finding rubbish littering the beach between their town and one of North Otago's major tourist attractions, the Moeraki Boulders.

The rubbish is being washed out of about a 60m-long face of the old Hampden dump as the sea erodes the former landfill.

It ends up on the coast, then is carried north by the sea and on to Hampden beach, which is a popular picnic and swimming spot. "

"The Waitaki District Council has been trying to remedy the situation since 2005, but is being held up by a resource consent application to the Otago Regional Council that requires input from the Department of Conservation.

The problem has been dragging on for years, but residents' patience has again been tested by heavy swells during the past week which have eroded more of the dump's face and released more rubbish."

"Any leachate from the dump is not considered to pose a health risk."

Yeah right!

Good ODT editorial on this issue here.

Let's fix this problem up. And i wonder what other landfills are getting eroded and beginning to leach or lose their contents. For too long we have just dumped everything to sort it out later... well later has arrived!

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