Smelter 'sources of contamination' highlighted

• Published date: 25 January 2023
• Publication title: Otago Daily Times: Web Edition Articles (New Zealand)

New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (NZAS) commissioned a report about the contamination at its site, which Environment Southland had assessed by EHS Support, which noted "numerous legacy and ongoing sources of contamination to the environment" and key gaps in the data

The gaps related to the surrounding coastal marine area, the on-site 50-year-old landfill (now closed) and the on-site spent cell-liner pad.

Environment Southland chief executive Wilma Falconer said the aim of the independent monitoring was to determine if there were any contamination issues relating to the neighbouring coastal environment and the 50-year-old landfill on the Tiwai site.

"While it is the smelter's responsibility to remediate the contamination, it is the council's responsibility to set the standard of that remediation. To be able to do that we need to understand the level of contamination and its potential impacts and these investigations will help us to do that."

EHS Support designed the independent monitoring programme and was undertaking the monitoring, she said.

The monitoring includes sampling and analysis of sediment, porewater and seawater from the intertidal area of Bluff Harbour and Foveaux Strait, next to NZAS' key operations, sediment, seawater and soil conditions from background samples located in the Bluff Harbour, Awarua Bay and Foveaux Strait areas and groundwater from selected wells next to the coastal marine area

NZAS has an extensive network of wells on the peninsula for monitoring groundwater quality and hydrogeology and has added a further 46 wells this year, eight of which were...