By Justin Wong, LDR
Spicer Landfill in the north of Wellington could be shut down when its resource consents expires at the end of 2030. Photo: MONIQUE FORD/THE POST
Spicer Landfill in the north of Wellington could be shut down in less than five years' time when its resource consent expires.
It's a proposal that would spell the end of decades of foul smells that troubled the neighbouring Wellington suburb of Tawa, but at the expense and inconvenience of Porirua residents.
Draft public consultation documents by the Porirua City Council showed it planned not to extend the landfill's resource consent and close it down after that runs out at the end of June 2030.
The council suggested converting the landfill to a transfer station to accumulate the city's rubbish and dispose them to a landfill elsewhere. An optional extra was a dump for earthwork materials. They could choose not to have a transfer station at all.
However, decommissioning the landfill was expensive.
On top of losing the $4 million surplus Spicer Landfill makes for the council's finances, Porirua residents would need to fork out $9.5m over two decades to manage the closed landfill until it poses no environmental risks. They would also need to pay for shipping rubbish out of the city.
The document did not specify the likely destinations of Porirua's rubbish after June 2030. The Southern Landfill in Wellington's Happy Valley and the Silverstream Landfill in the Hutt Valley would be the region's remaining places to accept rubbish.
The future of Spicer Landfill - jointly owned by the Porirua and Wellington city councils - has been up in the air for years, as residents in nearby Tawa have had to deal with the landfill's stench for decades.
A phenomenon known as katabatic winds, when winds flow downhill, were to blame.
When foul-smelling air was not mixed with the air around it, specific conditions - cool temperatures, gentle north to north-west wind usually early to late evening - would push it to the top of the ridge south of the landfill, then "drop" down the slopes to Tawa.
Porirua's council froze plans to extend the resource consent until it brought the smell under control. It rolled out measures like air monitors, odour neutralisers and even repurposed a seven-metre tall fan in late 2024 to disperse the landfill's smells.
Porirua mayor Anita Baker said the consultation document had no good options but the chances of getting the landfill's consent renewed were unlikely.
Wellington's deputy mayor Ben McNulty said Tawa residents would likely be "delighted" about the proposal because "the end was in sight" on the stench. The Wellington council would need to consider what Spicer Landfill's closure mean for them, especially the effects on the Southern Landfill.
He also did not believe it was unfair that Porirua might have to pay out of pocket to solve Tawa's troubles because the northern Wellington suburb "suffered an adverse impact" from the landfill without a compensation scheme for decades.
The four-week consultation begins next week. Councillors are voting on their interim options in May.
A report in November 2024 recommended seeking a short extension for the landfill's consent to 2035 before making an arrangement with neighbouring councils to deal with the city's rubbish. Mana whenua Ngāti Toa Rangatira wanted the landfill closed for good.
But they concluded there was "no perfect solution" for Porirua's rubbish.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
