Tiwai smelter needs to comply with environmental obligations under Resource Management Act

Despite being set up well prior to the act's establishment Tiwai aluminium smelter needs to comply with environmental obligations under the Resource Management Act, a Ministry for the Environment spokesperson says.

A new policy in the proposed Invercargill City District Plan "encourages" New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (NZAS) to rehabilitate Tiwai Point if the smelter closes - but the smelter maintains it has strict internal requirements around any such eventuality. A question arose around where the smelter sat in terms of environmental obligations - as it was established in the late 1960s under a far more permissive regime.

Although the smelter was set up prior to the Resource Management Act coming into force, the smelter still needed to comply with environmental obligations under the RMA, the Ministry spokesman said.

"Under the RMA councils have the responsibility to manage the effects of land use through their plan provisions and through any consent conditions. The National Environmental Standard for Assessing and Managing Contaminants in Soil to Protect Human Health will also apply to any change in land use of the smelter site."

The Ministry's website says the National Environmental Standard for Assessing and Managing Contaminants in Soil to Protect Human Health provides a nationally consistent set of planning controls and soil contaminant values and ensures that land affected by contaminants in soil is appropriately identified and assessed before it is developed - and if necessary the land is remediated or the contaminants contained to make the land safe for human use.

Site rehabilitation costs, in the event of closure, could be a key issue for the smelter as the cost has been estimated in the past at between $200 million to $400m. Analysts have said closure seems unlikely as the smelter's financial position has improved.

As part of the 10-year review of the Invercargill City Council District Plan, the smelter zone at Tiwai has been re-examined. In January the city council produced a report on proposals, including a new policy encouraging rehabilitation of the site in the event of closure. A hearing was not held as the smelter was generally happy with the report's contents, but it did submit on it. After minor changes the smelter said it was happy with the provisions.