5. CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green) Link to this
to the Minister for the Environment
Has he requested advice as to how many playgrounds, sportsgrounds, and parks around New Zealand are situated on landfills where toxic or hazardous materials have been dumped; if so, what was that advice?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for the Environment) Link to this
It is the regional councils, not the Ministry for the Environment, that keep records of information on specific contaminated sites. The sites on which the environment ministry has detailed information are only those that have received funding from the Contaminated Sites Remediation Fund. None of those includes playgrounds, sportsgrounds, or parks; they are predominantly previous industrial sites.
Catherine Delahunty Link to this
Does the Minister agree that people have a right to know which playgrounds, sportsgrounds, and parks are known to be contaminated by historical toxic dumps?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH Link to this
Yes, I do. I think the great difficulty is that, to take the situation in New Plymouth, it is very difficult to know where they are. No records were kept. There are about 20-odd dumps in a community like New Plymouth. I think that is true for communities right throughout New Zealand. In a previous era, like the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, contaminants were dumped in some of those sites; the difficulty is that we do not know which ones.
Jonathan YoungWhat steps have the Minister and his ministry taken since I raised the Marfell Park problem with him, to reassure local residents that all practical steps have been taken to ensure that it is safe?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH Link to this
The member rightly raised with me the problem in his constituency, and I have subsequently received reports from both the Taranaki Regional Council and the environment ministry. I am satisfied that the regional council took practical, immediate steps to remove drums from the park and a large amount of the surrounding soil. We now need to check that there is no residual contamination in that park, and tests are being commissioned right now. I have indicated in response to the member’s requests that the Government is open to making a contribution to ensure that those tests are done so that his constituents can be reassured that the site is safe.
Catherine Delahunty Link to this
Does the Minister agree with Dr Nick Smith, who said in 2006 that there would be no progress on contaminated sites, and, indeed, that the problem would get worse, without stronger direction from central government; and would a key part of stronger Government direction include better information for the public?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH Link to this
Yes, we have a number of steps under way. Central government needs to provide clearer direction. The first is providing some clear guidelines for the regional councils on how to deal with both potentially contaminated and contaminated sites. We also have on our important programme of work discussion of the future of the Environmental Protection Authority. We know from the report of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment on the situation at Māpua that a policy agency is not well qualified to do some of the operational functions. The Government will need to work through that question as we detail the Environmental Protection Authority’s functions.
Catherine Delahunty Link to this
Will the Minister agree to the creation of a national public register of all known contaminated sites on public lands?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH Link to this
Under the Resource Management Act as it stands, responsibility for such registers rests with the regional councils. I think it makes little sense to have a duplicate—that is, a bunch of bureaucrats in Wellington as well as those in the regional councils, with both doing the same job. A further point I would make is that the Ministry for the Environment is a policy agency, and where it has got into operational areas, as I noted in the case of Māpua, its performance is not satisfactory. I think we need to take that into account.
Catherine Delahunty Link to this
Does the Minister agree that the companies that contaminated these sites should take responsibility for their damage to the environment and people’s health; and will he consider introducing the change to the Resource Management Act proposed in 1999 by his predecessor the Rt Hon Simon Upton, which would make anyone responsible for land contamination before 1991 liable for cleaning it up?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH Link to this
I first make the point that there is a difficulty. For example, in the situation in New Plymouth it seems that the dumping of such containers or drums was actually lawful in the 1960s. I think there is an issue where a company behaved lawfully for the time, but that behaviour is now inappropriate. What is the best way to handle that? I have asked the Ministry for the Environment to do some policy work on the state of the law in respect of contaminated sites, and that work includes the issue the member has raised.
Catherine Delahunty: I seek leave to table two documents. One is a statement made by Rt Hon Simon Upton on 15 October 1999 in an article in the Southland Times.
Mr SPEAKERCatherine Delahunty: The second document is a statement made by Dr Nick Smith to the lower North Island regional conference of the National Party on 13 May 2006.