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Introduction

The Fruitgrowers Chemical Company opened a pesticide formulation factory at Mapua in 1932. In 1945 the manufacture of organochlorine pesticides began, and in 1958, organophosphorus formulation was introduced. By the time the FCC operations closed down in 1988 over a hundred chemicals had been used and formulated on site. While this history resulted in a complex and heterogeneous site, it is not unusual for such sites remediated elsewhere in the world.

During this period, housing was developed on the peninsula south of the site, including on properties on the boundaries of the site. Commercial properties were developed to the north of the site.

The management of a site with these characteristics, whether by treatment and remediation, or by containment, is inevitably associated with significant, but manageable, risks.

Tasman District Council is the local authority within which the Mapua site is located and which has responsibilities under the Resource Management Act.

In the mid-90s site investigations were conducted, leading to the development of a resource consent application for a containment strategy. In 1997 a Resource Consent hearing granted a Consent for this purpose. The Royal Forest and Bird Society appealed this decision, in part on the grounds that containment was not the preferred response. The government also expressed its view that the preferred strategy was remediation, not containment. In 1999 the New Zealand Government decided to assist TDC with funding, research and advice, delivered in part by the Ministry for the Environment (the Ministry).

After a number of technology assessments, and field trials on the subject soil, TDC awarded the contract to Thiess, using the remediation technology of Environmental Decontamination Ltd (EDL), in 2001.

Thiess carried out further site characterisation and investigations, leading to a Resource Consent Application in 2003 for remedial works. Greenpeace and the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society appealed the conditions, and the consent was granted with amendments in November 2003. The amendments included the establishment of a Peer Review Panel to oversee the ‘Proof of Performance’ of the selected remediation technology.

In August 2004 Thiess Services withdrew from the project and the Ministry for the Environment became the consent holder, assuming responsibility for the project.

The last batch of contaminated soil was treated in July 2007, and in November 2007 the resource consents expired and the site became the responsibility of the TDC.

In July 2008 the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment published a report resulting from an investigation under S16(1)(c) of the Environment Act, following allegations of poor environmental management of the remediation of the site.

In September 2008 the Chief Executive of the Ministry for the Environment, New Zealand, commissioned a review in order to assist the resolution of the Ministry’s continuing responsibilities for the Mapua site.

This document presents that review, under the following terms of reference.

Terms of Reference

  1. To complete a detailed picture of the MfE involvement in the Mapua remediation process focusing on the Ministry’s
    1. Internal processes;
    2. Governance; and
    3. Management.
  2. This investigation will include consideration of the Ministry’s competency to undertake the roles it variously did and to manage the various contractual relationships it was party to.
  3. To provide recommendations on
    1. What further action the Ministry needs to take at Mapua (if anything)
    2. A future protocol to guide MfE’s involvement in any future contaminated site containment or remediation.
  4. This is to enable the Chief Executive to reach an understanding of what the Ministry has done well. What it has done poorly as well as rebutting any accusations that are not appropriate.
  5. The primary context for this review is provided by the report of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment concerning the contaminated site at Mapua.

Conduct of the Review

The review was carried out over a two-week in-country phase of collection of information, including a visit to the Mapua site, with reporting and further research carried out during report preparation. Full access to the records of the Ministry for the Environment, and research assistance, was provided.

The access provided to the Ministry’s files and electronic records, and the availability of records of TDC provided every opportunity to examine original documentation. The short time available for the review precluded a close examination of every relevant original document, and so this review does not represent a formal ‘audit’ approach to the information.

Current and former staff of the Ministry, and other key players, were generous with their time, and readily participated in interviews to explore the issues.

Many complex and detailed scientific reports were generated over the long period of the preparation and conduct of the clean-up. In preparing this review all key reports were made available, and examined in detail for the relevant issues.

The review focused on the Ministry for the Environment. Where relevant to the Ministry’s performance, the actions of other organisations were investigated.

A draft of the report was provided to the Ministry, for the correction of factual errors, and for additional information to be provided where the initial research was incomplete.

 

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Last updated: 8 December 2008