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Cleanfill siting, design and operation (section 5 - 8 in the Guide)

Cleanfill siting (Section 5)

When cleanfill siting developers should consider:

  • Locality - visual impact, buffer zones
  • Landuse - zoning, production land
  • Property issues - one lot or many, number of owners
  • Site soils - erosion, material for capping, stock pile location
  • Site stability - geological faults, landslide prone areas, geothermal activity, steeply sloping land
  • Surface water - flood risk
  • Topography
  • Access and traffic
  • Environmental - natural features, historical or cultural sites
  • Community issues - nuisance

Cleanfill design (section 6 and 7)

Factors influencing cleanfill design include:

  • End use - final landform, final stability, staging of development
  • Site characterisation - geotechnical (and therefore stability), services on site, background surface and groundwater quality
  • Site access - adequate roading, security
  • Site facilities - charging booth, wheel wash, landscaping
  • Erosion and sediment control
  • Fill volumes and staging
  • Engineering considerations - site preparation, compaction requirements, stormwater channels, ponds etc.

A cleanfill is typically a long-duration activity lasting several years. By comparison, an earthworks project may be limited to a single construction season of a few months to a year. For this reason, erosion and sediment control requirements for a cleanfill are more closely aligned to those for a landfill or quarry activity. The focus should be on providing robust, permanent sediment control measures with smaller temporary works and erosion controls to augment the key treatment devices.

The key principles of effective erosion and sediment control are:

  1. protection of sensitive areas (avoidance)
  2. diversion of 'clean' water (erosion control)
  3. minimising the area of exposed earth surfaces (erosion control)
  4. breaking up the site into small lengths and areas (erosion control)
  5. collection and treatment of sediment-laden water (sediment control)
  6. maintenance and inspection of erosion and sediment control devices.

Cleanfill operation (section 8)

Every cleanfill facility must have a site-specific management plan. This plan should cover all operational and management aspects of the cleanfill, including:

  • resource consent requirements
  • cleanfill design
  • site management
  • waste acceptance controls and procedures - waste acceptance criteria, documentation, waste disposal agreements, inspections
  • daily operating procedures - fill placement and control, access, water control, nuisance control
  • environmental controls and monitoring
  • emergency procedures
  • reporting requirements.

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Last updated: 17 September 2007