Environment Minister Nick Smith today offered neighbours of the former Fruitgrowers Chemical Company in Mapua, near Motueka, evidence that the clean-up of one of the nation's most contaminated sites has not spilled over contaminants to their sections.Diox
Environment Minister Nick Smith today offered neighbours of the former Fruitgrowers Chemical Company in Mapua, near Motueka, evidence that the clean-up of one of the nation's most contaminated sites has not spilled over contaminants to their sections.
Dioxin concentrations in soils on residential sections around the site are lower than nationally and internationally-recommended levels, according to an independent report, said Dr Smith.
The 3.5 hectare site was for years made up of piles of dirt as batches of soil were "cooked" in a remediation process to reduce the contamination, and residents raised questions about whether DDT, benzenes and arsenic could have blown onto other properties in the coastal settlement, 31km west of Nelson.
"As with any earthworks project, and despite the dust mitigation measures undertaken, there were discharges of dust from the site," Dr Smith said today.
But the independent report on dioxin concentrations in soils around the site on residential sections showed they had not been contaminated, he said.
"The levels of dioxin at Mapua were at least 50 times less than the values for rural residential locations in the Government's proposed national environment standard for contaminated soils, consulted on earlier this year.
"They are well below other international standards for dioxin."
"The results of 10 soil samples taken show the concentration of dioxins were similar to those found in other similar locations within New Zealand.
"The Mapua community can begin to put the pollution problems at the former Fruitgrowers Chemical Company site behind it".
The former Fruitgrowers' Chemical Company site, the Lime and Marble quarry site, and a Tasman District Council-owned landfill carried the legacy of five decades of production of organochloride and organophosphate pesticides such as DDT, dieldrin and lindane, by the agrichemical company, which stopped operating in 1987.
The Resource Management Act in 1991 made the landowner -- a major winery company -- responsible for clean-up costs, but Tasman District Council took over much of the land in 1996 and agreed to split the $12 million clean-up costs with the Government.
