WasteMINZ
Conference 2003
Conference 2003 Report Trade Exhibitors Investigations & Remediation - on site at the Conference TLA Waste Officers Forum Conference People
Additional related conference pages:
2003 Papers | 2003 Abstracts
 

Conference 2003 Report

It may be cliched and obvious, but WOW! what a conference.

The conference kicked off on Tuesday with an excellent turnout for the Contaminated Sites and ZeroWaste workshops, with 180 attendees getting down and dirty on the site tours to Mapua and Brookside.

The official opening was of course fully attended, (first free drinks after all), where we were graciously welcomed by WasteMINZ chairman Allan Goddard and Paul Bishop of EnviroWaste, and had our first chance to peruse the expo, discovering new technologies and catching up with old friends. Rumour has it there was a large WasteMINZ contingent out and about in Nelson bars that night.

Of course another reason to attend the conference is the fascinating information presented in the sessions. The wide range of topics guaranteed a paper to interest
everyone and allowed the more adventurous among us to sample new waste... umm... flavours, if you know what I mean. Sheep dip anyone?

The keynote speakers Doug McKenzie-Mohr and Donald Huisingh were both very well received, and a lot of knowledge was shared in the other papers.

The diversity allowed me to hear an analysis of the changing roles of the public and private sector, get insight into the challenges of dealing with contaminated sites and also indulge my enthusiasm for all things tiny with several fascinating papers on bioremediation and composting etc.

It’s not possible to go to all the sessions of course and when one afternoon session was rocked by the laughter issuing from next door I did question my choice of
sessions. Luckily someone mentioned fungaI-based remediation to reassure me, and afterwards I traced the laughter back to a video from the North Shore City Council, showing how the general public actually think (or don’t!)

Apparently it was an excellent reminder of the reality of life outside the WasteMINZ realm and was obviously very funny.

The social side of the conference is just as important though (read: the whole point!) The buzz of conversation at Seifrieds was amazing as so many happy WasteMINZers chatted, gossipped and enjoyed the lubricating effects of Nelson sun and Seifrieds
wine. Seriously though a lot of very useful networking occurred as the many different sectors of the WasteMINZ world blended. One council attendee commented on how fascinating it was being able to talk to the designers of new technology in an informal setting.

The fantastic fireworks display (oooh! aaaah!) heralded a reluctant return to the hotels, followed by a less reluctant return to the Nelson nightlife by quite a few,
judging by some of the rather blank faces on Thursday morning, and the occasional worried question: “I didn’t really try to chat up a MOLOK did I?”

Dinner on Thursday was another great success despite a worrying conspiracy of bus drivers desperate to get going - quite possibly eager to get into their fallout shelters before Nelson was hit with the full force of a WasteMINZ conference unchained and on the town! World of Wearable Arts was amazing, as was the impromptu cabaret at the Stadium featuring locked doors, alarms and firemen! Once inside a lot of fun
was had over dinner, with Raybon Kan providing the humour.

Every successful conference has a long list of people to thank, so...

Thank you EnviroWaste for being the major sponsor of the conference.

Thank you to all our other wonderful sponsors and thanks to all the trade exhibitors.

Thanks to Doug and Don for the fascinating information and intellectual stimulation. Thanks to Nelson for the food, wine and sun. Thanks to the little pizzeria at Tahuna Beach for the awesome gourmet pizzas.

And a very big thank you to all the WasteMINZ staff who worked so hard to make it all happen, and who never even got a chance to misbehave!

Finally here’s some awards that didn’t make Champions Corner....

Best Water Feature - this was a close call but finally went to the anonymous WasteMINZ member knee deep in the pool at WOW. That same attendee also received the Most Graceful Sodden Exit prize.

Best Handbasin and Runner-up Water Feature was the fountain at the Rutherford, (as voted by my 3 year old daughter!)

There were some comments that this year’s conference was very clean and orderly, even downbeat, compared with last year. Perhaps not: the last award, for Most
Dubious Comment of Thursday Morning, goes to “No, no... of course not, I just walked her home.”

Andrew McKaskell, Electric Hedgehog
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Trade Exhibitors

Trade Exhibitors | Best trade exhibit | Runners up | Waste Wall

 
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Investigations & Remediation - on site at the Conference

This year’s contaminated sites workshop focused on moving from investigation to remediation. Rather than a day of papers or presentations, the 50 plus delegates were immediately plunged into small groups. Each group consisted of 5-8 members, from a variety of backgrounds. They were confronted with a map of a site, a list of instructions, and $45,000 (the money was, unfortunately, only ‘legal’ tender on the morning of the workshop). Participants had to plan an investigation on the site, and
decide what investigative informationthey would buy. Decisions had to be made whether to meet budget and settle for less data, or blow the budget early on and yet have a clearer understanding of the site. Decisions made, questions asked, and difficulties encountered were then relayed to one other group working on the site, and eventually to the whole workshop enabling everyone to understand the issues associated with investigating the site.

On site at Mapua - viewing remediation in action

Ben Keet, the workshop organiser, then summarised the investigativeinformation found, and introduced the next stage of the workshop - taking the investigative information and using it to plan remediation. Groups plotted out areas of the site that exceeded health guidelines, and worked out volumes of contaminated soil that would need to be managed, site health and safety measures needed, validation sampling costs, and regulatory requirements, all while trying to keep within budget!

While each group’s efforts were assessed, Ben summarised the morning and prepared people for the afternoon’s site visits – one of the sites to be visited was the one that they had just been working on. Four groups received the spoils of the day – wine kindly provided by Waste Management Ltd, with the “runners up” indulging in chocolates from the Ministry for the Environment.

Following a brief lunch, participants boarded buses and travelled to the Carter Holt Harvey Ltd Brookside site - the subject of the morning’sworkshop. The Brookside site had housed a sawmill and timber treatment plant since 1962, with the site being decommissioned in 1985. Tonkin and Taylor Ltd, acting for Carter Holt Harvey Ltd, were the consultants who investigated and planned the remediation of the site, and Waste Management Ltd undertook the site works. Staff of all three organisations
planned and conducted the first of the two site visits.

Delegates were greeted on the site (after the obligatory health and safety briefing) with a brief site history. Four stations on the site allowed participants to view the sampling equipment used in the investigation (test pitting and use of a handheld XRF), see different areas of site activity (which had been ‘investigated’ in the workshop), and to view the PCP contaminated material that had been stockpiled on site and which was subject to bioremediation trials conducted by Carter Holt Harvey and the University of Waikato. Areas of the site that had been remediated were marked out, allowing participants to gain an appreciation of thesize and scope of the works.

From Brookside, delegates travelled on to the former Fruitgrowers Chemical Site at Mapua. Easily the most famous (or infamous) site in the country, Mapua was set for remediation, and the Mechano-Chemical Dehalogenation (MCD) plant was on site, ready to go. At the time of the visit, appeals to the Resource Consents (since resolved) for the site meant the commencement of the remediation had been put on hold. Nevertheless, delegates were treated to a tour around the plant, hearing about remediation of both the site itself and the estuarine sediments, and the community consultation that had occurred. Finally, the plant was started up (empty of any contaminated soil!), and delegates saw first hand the great green giant in action.

All in all, an informative and profitable day - not to be missed next year.

Dave Clancey, Environment Canterbury
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TLA Waste Officers Forum

More than thirty Territorial Local Authority (TLA) officers and invited guests enjoyed a collaborative morning bouncing ideas, experiences and views around in an effort to identify common themes as well as localised issues relating to addressing waste management throughout New Zealand.

Common issues that arose from this included:

  1. A drive for more and more co-operation in both policy setting and service delivery between neighbouring TLAs and also regional councils
  2. The difficulty of providing a reasonable level of service in less populated rural areas
  3. Greater focus on the provision of recycling services and raising public awareness about waste minimisation
  4. Diversity of pricing policies and cost structures across the country,
    and some times between neighbours.

The Local Government Act 2002 seems to place more obligations on TLAs, particularly with respect to consultation and bylaw reviews. Opportunities for TLAs to benefit from sharing their experiences and resources were considered. In some areas it is considered that licensing could help with waste management planning/partnering
with the private sector included.

From central government it sounds like the legislative programme is full in other areas, indicating that the LGA 2002 waste management provisions are likely to remain unchanged in the mean time and thatcompulsory landfill levies are not imminent. However the production of environmental standards for air quality and landfill gas under existing provisions of the RMA has stepped up.

Central government has reviewed the New Zealand Waste Strategy (NZWS) targets and no changes are proposed, despite the conclusion that some of the targets will generally not be met in parts of New Zealand. However the NZWS targets are appropriately regarded as guidelines, and variations to the targets are entirely appropriate and can be reasonably justified in specific situations for each TLA.

The broader implications of the NZWS’s consideration of liquid, gaseous and solid wastes and where the most significant environmental issues exist were discussed. While much public focus is on solid waste and recycling often the most significant effects are in relation to other matters such as non-source point discharges of stormwater or agriculture effluent - where historically less public resources are directed. One of central government’s targets is to achieve producer responsibility sectors, for example the Packaging Goods Accord. The Accord calls for a series of action plans including the proposed Local Government Plan. TLA officers interested in being involved in its development should contact Ket Bradshaw at MfE.

Brian Gallagher and his team presented the 2003 update of the WasteMinz TLA Benchmark Database. This contains data from 20 councils, which forms the basis of a networking tool that can be used to keep track of what various councils have been working on.

Justin Reid, Southland District Council
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