A proposed condition to protect nesting native birds during vegetation clearance at Green Island landfill has been described as "pretty full on" by an independent commissioner.
Commissioner Rob van Voorthuysen gave the Dunedin City Council until Friday to provide a final suite of conditions for his consideration.
He adjourned the hearing for the continued use, eventual closure and subsequent aftercare of the city’s class 1 landfill last month.
At the hearing, he questioned the city council, submitters and technical experts for the Otago Regional Council on a variety of matters.
SLR Consulting principal ecologist Elizabeth Morrison, of Auckland, audited the city council’s ecological impact assessment, bird risk assessment report and draft southern black backed gull management plan.
She recommended a more robust condition to ensure the protection of nesting birds during vegetation clearance.
"That’s just to make sure it’s really clear about what’s expected," she told Mr van Voorthuysen.
"It’s a pretty full-on bird nesting condition," he said.
"That’s what we use in the Auckland region," Ms Morrison said.
"We’re not in the Auckland region, are we?" he replied.
Ms Morrison recommended vegetation alteration or clearance should happen outside the typical nesting season for native birds, from early September to the end of February.
If clearance of trees during this period was unavoidable, an approved ecologist or ornithologist should inspect the trees to be felled to ensure there were no active nests, she said.
Mr van Voorthuysen heard from landowner Colin Venables who said odour issues had been downplayed at the site recently.
Mr Venables said he did not oppose the continued use of the site until 2030 as planned.
"However, they need to substantially improve the odour situation so all neighbours of this site do not have to put up with objectionable smells."
City council counsel Michael Garbett said there had been a slight change to the city council’s proposed odour condition measured at the site’s boundary.
He further recognised there was a difference of opinion between experts for the city and regional councils on a technical issue related to the slope of the landfill cap due to the elimination of perishable material from the waste that now entered Green Island.
He told the commissioner the city council would adjust the bond, first determined in 1994, to account for inflation.
"We were dealing with a pretty old bond, but ... while it’s old and its language may be slightly on the archaic end of the spectrum, it does its job.
"It does provide a full indemnity to the Otago Regional Council."
The $1 million bond in place would now be valued at slightly more than $2m, he said.
"So I’ve rounded that to $2m as a cash or bank surety in the event that the landfill changes hands from the city council to some private operator.
"As I’ve said in my submissions, there is no intention to do that.
"There’s no intention that I or the relevant staff are aware of to transfer the land, nor the consents to any other private individuals.
"So in a sense it’s theoretical, because so far as my instructions extend, the current intention is to operate the Green Island landfill and its aftercare in the name of Dunedin City Council."
When Mr van Voorthuysen receives the updated proposed conditions from the city council if he has no further questions he will declare the hearing closed and have 15 days to issue a decision.
