Operations at Greymouth's infamous privately-owned industrial landfill continues to operate after a consent application to expand the operation was put on hold by the West Coast Regional Council.
By Vihan Dalal, Local Democracy Reporter
Timaru-based company Taylorville Resource Park's (TRP) has battled strong opposition from local residents and the Grey District Council, which has the Greymouth town water supply plant directly opposite.
A pressure group, Grey United against Taylorville Toxic Dump (GUTTD), was formed last year to oppose the landfill with the backing of the Greymouth Mayor.
Separately, Mayor Tania Gibson is being sued by TRP for defamation arising from previous comments about the landfill.
The company has sought to change the status of the landfill to accept more materials, although previously it has been taken to court over illegally accepting sandblasting materials and fibre-optic cables from Christchurch, into the Taylorville site.
A spokesman for TRP said today the volume of material being disposed at the landfill under the existing consent has continued as usual while it continues to talk to the regional council on expansion plans.
Council regulatory and policy group manager Matt Smith told Local Democracy Reporting the company's consent application to expand their operations to accept more materials into the landfill has been put on hold, pending further information.
The deadline for TRP to provide that information is August 21, 2026.
TRP filed for a resource consent last year to allow them to discharge contaminated leachates from the Coal Creek site.
However, the variation was denied, council commissioners saying they were not satisfied that TRP could mitigate the adverse effects on drinking water and cultural values.
GUTTD spokesman Cliff Sandrey, a former long-serving Grey district councillor, said they had not heard anything on the progress of those discussions.
"They were discussing how to get the (leachate) content down to the level that it required or the filtration of it after their last application. Their last application was quite a while ago and I have not really heard anything ever since."
TRP sued Mayor Gibson mid last year, alleging defamation from her criticism of the proximity of the landfill to the Greymouth town water supply directly opposite.
Mrs Gibson said today that case was ongoing and the timing to resolve the process was uncertain.
TRP has been mired in controversy since the landfill opened in 2021.
Neighbours in Taylorville first complained of the stench from the site when it began accepting horticultural waste via MPI.
The Grey District Council then called for a closure of the site after tests showed water from an unlined cell at the dump was leaching into a roadside drain below the site.
The dump was subsequently shut down on orders from the Environmental Protection Authority to dig out the cell and line it to prevent water from leaching out before it would be allowed to reopen.
In 2023, two landfill workers were overcome by a build-up of poisonous gases in the landfill pit they were clearing. TRP was prosecuted by Work Safe NZ for endangering the lives of the two workers and was sentenced in July last year.
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ on Air
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