April 05, 2019
Fox waste spills along Westland coast
Waste from a landfill on the Fox River breached by floods a week ago has now spread over 300 kilometres of the coastline.
That includes part of the Westland Tai Poutini National Park, the Waiau Glacier Coast Marine Reserve and those adjacent to the Ōkarito Mataitai Reserve, an important feeding ground of Kōtuku or White Heron.
Forest & Bird conservation manager Jennifer Miller says it’s a massive ecological disaster which will take more to fix than the resources Westland District Council or Ngāi Tahu has to offer.
She says there still hasn’t been a proper assessment what was in the landfill, which was last used in 1980.
"Old landfills had all sorts of stuff – nasty chemicals, asbestos, goodness knows what. That's what's been spewing out along the beach along with plastic and all the normal rubbish you might expect from a landfill. What is going out there? What impact is it going to have on our native wildlife? What impact is it going to have on the health and safety of our volunteers there," Ms Miller says.
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