Toxic chemicals buried on Waikato site

IAIN McGREGOR/Waikato Times

WALLACE WOES: The Wallace plant in Waitoa. Wallace Corporation has been found guilty of discharging a contaminant into land without resource consent.

Relevant offers

Two managers of a Waikato meat processing company face jail after being found guilty of ordering the burial of illegal toxic chemicals in a building site.

Waitoa-based Wallace Corporation denied burying the chemicals when its two senior employees appeared in court earlier this year.

This month a reserved decision released by Environment Court Judge Fred McElrea found against the company and managers Neville Cross and Barry Dew.

Wallace Corp ended up in court after whistleblower Andrew Ellis contacted his union to tell them of his concerns about the chemicals.

Charges were laid in 2005 and a 12-day defended hearing was held in February and May this year.

Mr Ellis was a storeman at the company in 1997 when he was asked by Mr Dew to remove 13 capacitors, which were leaking oil from the rendering plant's switchroom.

The capacitors, each about the size of a shoebox, contained PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls). By that time, PCBs were banned in New Zealand and had to be disposed off overseas. They are carcinogenic and, once in the ground, risk contaminating waterways.

Mr Ellis obtained a quote from a hazardous waste disposal specialist but was told it was too expensive. He said that in early 1998, he was asked by Mr Dew to bury the capacitors in the foundations of a new company building. Mr Ellis said he refused.

A second worker, Malcolm Workman, was then asked to put the capacitors in the hole and did so.

Judge McElrea said he believed there were at least eight - and up to 13 - capacitors put in the hole by Mr Workman.

No one from Wallace Corporation was available to comment on the decision yesterday.

But in an unattributed statement, the firm said it had "been found guilty in the District Court on one charge - that in 1998 it discharged a contaminant into land without resource consent".

The statement also said: "The court accepted that the burial was contrary to instructions that the capacitors be disposed off properly, and that the first the directors became aware of the burial was in 2005."

Environment Waikato complaints and enforcement officer Rob Dragten said there were several unsuccessful attempts to locate the buried PCBs and the council would keep trying.

"If we can't locate the actual PCBs and remove them, we would apply for an enforcement order to set up a long-term monitoring regime in nearby waterways to alert us quickly to any signs of seepage and develop a plan to ensure no people, stock or wildlife are harmed," he said.

Mr Dragten said each defendant (Mr Cross, Mr Dew and the company) face fines of up to $2.95 million. Mr Cross and Mr Dew could also be sent to jail for up to two years.

The Wallace site in Wood Rd contains an abattoir, rendering plant, tannery, leather processing facility and a waste treatment system.

The company is chaired by arts patron and rich list regular James Wallace.

Wallace Corporation has previously pleaded guilty to spilling rendering plant liquid waste to water in April 1997. It also pleaded guilty to over-application of treated effluent on to irrigation properties during the 2000 season.

Last year it was fined $47,000 after pleading guilty to discharging objectionable odours to air during 2004.

- © Fairfax NZ News