Council considers landfill export

As the consent application for a proposed Brighton landfill remains on hold, a Dunedin City Council investigation into the cost of using a regional landfill continues, the council says.

When councillors decided to lodge consent applications for a landfill south of the city, in August last year, Cr David Benson-Pope asked staff to investigate the financial impacts of exporting waste from the district.

This week, a council spokesman said that work was ongoing but was expected to form part of a report to councillors later this year.

The work had been prioritised alongside other work within the council’s waste team and formed a part of a wider report that was still being prepared, he said.

The council would not offer details on the nature of the report.

‘‘The report to councillors will be considered in non-public due to the commercial sensitivity of its contents, so we are unable to discuss details,’’ the spokesman said.

The council’s proposal for a landfill near Brighton was now on hold while the Otago Regional Council said questions it had asked the Dunedin City Council last year remained unanswered.

One point of contention between the two councils is a 1992 report which the DCC used to select the Brighton location.

Meanwhile, the closure of the Green Island landfill looms.

The Green Island landfill consent is due to expire in 2023.

However, on the DCC’s website, the council said it was likely to apply for new consents and was investigating how long landfill operations could continue at Green Island.

It also said it expected the Brighton landfill to start operating in 2026, and it had budgeted $56million to make that happen.

Cr Benson-Pope did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz