Council chief executive Steve Parry said a deal in principle had been reached this afternoon for the almost 10,000 tonnes of ouvea premix stored in a former paper mill in the town to be shifted elsewhere in Southland.
‘‘The key people involved are all happy to run down this track, it is just that the details need to be finalised,’’ Mr Parry said.
‘‘But I wanted to let the community know that we have found a solution and that we are working earnestly to get that put in place.’’
Mr Parry would not say at this stage where the substance would end up, other than it would be outside the Gore district.
Earlier council deputy chief executive Ian Davidson-Watts told a media conference ammonia levels were "way below" what the council had expected to find inside the former Mataura paper mill, where the toxic material is stored.
Residents of the town were evacuated on Wednesday amid fears of rising floodwaters entering the old mill and mixing with the premix — the dross from New Zealand Aluminium Smelters’ Tiwai Point smelter — and generating poisonous ammonia gas.
“We’ve had some good news in relation to the ouvea premix — there’s been no significant floodwater in there," Mr Davidson-Watts said.
An inspection of the building by Gore District Council staff and Fire and Emergency New Zealand teams yesterday found it was structurally sound and dry, and fears the toxic ouvea premix would enter the environment were unfounded.
Gore Mayor Tracy Hicks said the ammonia leak levels indicated six parts per million inside the mill and one part per million outside the building.
He understood levels would need to be ‘’well into the 20s" in order to injure the community’s health.
The council believed the flood defence and the procedures that were in place before the flood had kept the area from putting the community’s health at risk.
Alliance Group’s Mataura plant had also been “checked out" by various response teams and any danger it could have caused was ruled out.
Earlier yesterday, residents were still expressing their concern about the premix, and that it had been the reason they were evacuated.
They told media they had warned the council this would happen and felt they should not be made to live with the risk.
Mr Hicks acknowledged residents’ frustrations and apologised that the council had not "been able to get information to residents as quickly as we would have liked".
He said it was a large challenge physically and financially, but council staff were working with “key groups" to ensure the mill’s safety in the future.
