24-07-2025
Clean up of Wellington beach toxic dump site cost nearly $1 million
Te Raekaihau Point in Wellington.
Photo:
RNZ / Nick James
Cleaning up an old toxic dump site on a Wellington beach has cost nearly a million dollars.
In late 2021, a member of the public told local authorities they could see asbestos on a bank at Te Raekaihau Point, which sits between Lyall Bay and Princess Bay, an area popular for walkers, runners and cyclists.
The council did investigations of the site in July 2022 and August 2023 which found evidence of asbestos, oil, heavy metals, zinc, arsenic and lead.
They said it appeared the area was used for sand extraction in the 1930s, with it being back filled with waste likely in the 1950s or 60s.
Earlier this year RNZ reported that the council would
excavate, wrap and move to the material
to the southern landfill, due to the area being at risk of erosion and storm surges that could have led to it leaking.
Over three weeks in May that work was done, which also included the relocation of native lizards called Mokomoko and digging up 2,200 tonnes of waste.
Wellington City Council has confirmed to RNZ that the work costed nearly $1 million with half of it being paid for by the government through the $30 million
Contaminated Sites and Vulnerable Landfills Fund
announced in October.
A council marine and coastal project manager Joel De Boer told RNZ he was aware that there may be more sites like this around the city.
"A lot of them will already be covered, some of them may already be capped over and it may not be until you know a point in time when they become exposed that action will be taken."
De Boer said it was not a not cheap job to clean these dumpsites up so the council's job was about reacting to them when it could.
He said that from his conversations with the Ministry of Environment there were many sites like this across New Zealand.
A site validation report which would determine the final levels of any contaminants was being finished and would be peer reviewed over the next few weeks.
The council expected it to show the area was safe.
Throughout the Wellington region there are more than 100 closed landfill sites, many of which lay under popular parks and reserves.
When RNZ first reported on the South Coast site in January environment scientist Dr Jeff Seadon said it was not surprising.
"What we've got is something in the order of hundreds if not thousands of these sites around New Zealand. A lot of these sites are known by councils, but there are also a lot that are still unfound or undetected."
Seadon said during the 19th and 20th centuries, waste was often dumped because it was convenient and created some extra land. He said with larger storm surges and sea level rise, these dumps were being swept out and exposed.
