3 days ago
Govt chips in $3m for cleanup
The junction of Awamoa Rd and the closed Beach Rd 3km south of Oamaru. PHOTO: ODT FILES
Waitaki district ratepayers have now had the burden of a multimillion-dollar environmental cleanup reduced by a total of $8 million, after the government stepped in to provide another big funding boost.
This week, the Waitaki District Council announced the government has provided $3m in grant funding to support the now completed Project Reclaim.
The project removed 67,000 tonnes of fly-tipped and oceanside landfill waste from three sites along the east Otago coastline in 2024, safely securing it 8km inland at a purpose-designed landfill cell near Palmerston.
At the time, the council did not qualify for the Contaminated Sites Remediation Fund and was not considered for the additional grant funding provided in February 2024 for projects yet to take place.
However, a council media statement says "strong advocacy" from Waitaki District Mayor Gary Kircher to Environment Minister Penny Simmonds and the Ministry for the Environment resulted in Cabinet approval for the new $3m grant.
"We have taken decisive action to remedy past mistakes, led the way in preventing an environmental disaster, and ensured we got the best value for the ratepayer by advocating for both this grant, and the waste levy and emission trading scheme waivers."
Combined with the approved waivers of the waste levy ($4m) and emissions trading scheme ($1.4m), earlier this year, the overall cost of the project has fallen from $18m to less than $10m.
Project Reclaim was an environmental cleanup of historic dump and illegal fly-tipping sites.
The resulting holes left from digging up the road to extract 19,000 tonnes of old refuse left the erosion-prone road unusable, and it has been closed since November last year.
