Mysterious sludge at beach years ago, Dunedin man recalls

Revelations the sand dunes at Dunedin's Middle beach are laced with traces of industrial chemicals have jogged memories of a mysterious white sludge for Dunedin man Wayne Campbell.

Mr Campbell (62) contacted the Otago Daily Times this week. after Dunedin City Council staff last week confirmed traces of arsenic, asbestos and other industrial chemicals had been found in the dunes.

The contamination of the seaward side of the dunes was believed to have come from old landfill buried under what is now Kettle Park, although council staff were awaiting more test results to determine the extent of the problem.

Mr Campbell said he could recall coming across a mysterious white substance while fossicking in the landfill as a young boy in the 1950s.

The white, slimy material was "like quicksand" and had been dumped at the foot of the sand dunes near Middle beach, between St Clair and St Kilda beaches, he said.

"Where it came from, I don't know. I know if you stood in it you went in up to your knees. It was like porridge."

The material was delivered by tanker once every week or two, and poured on to the ground where it remained in pools until covered over by other rubbish, he said.

Mr Campbell did not know "where it came from or what it was", and could not say whether the substance was linked to contamination of the dunes.

However, the liquid would be capable of leaching into the ground and moving, and the dumping location "fits the picture" of where tests had found contamination, he believed.

Council community and recreation services manager Mick Reece said the substance sounded like "pretty horrific stuff", but he did not know what it was.

Council business devel-opment team leader Greg Sligo said Mr Campbell's recollections "may or may not be right".

Another member of the public had reported material being dumped at the landfill by plasterers in the past, Mr Sligo said.

"Whether that's the white sludge... gosh, who knows? We just genuinely don't know."

Council staff were waiting for more detailed test results before deciding what steps would be needed to deal with the contamination.

- chris.morris@odt.co.nz