Fears of leakage from rotting pile - Nelson Mail

There is no doubt that leachate can be very strog and cause a risk of surface water pollution, fish kils, etc. even where composting is taking place, and controls on where such compost piles are located may be needed. Here is a case where this has been seen as being vitally important.

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HELEN MURDOCH: A breach in a clay bund wall surrounding an illegal pile of rotting chicken and bark near the Motueka River has raised questions about the waste leaking into groundwater.

The Nelson Mail returned to the site on Thursday and found an overgrown drain from the compost site used by Birdhurst Ltd led directly to a nearby well liner sunk into the ground.

On Tuesday the Tasman District Council's environmental information manager Rob Smith had said that the illegal pile of rotting layer hens and bark would be allowed to remain at the site for the next month until the compost process was complete because moving the heaps before the process was complete would create too much smell.

At the time Mr Smith said the piles were in a compacted clay pit and there was no chance of contamination entering the groundwater – which ran between 2.5 to 3.5 metres below the surface – or reaching the Motueka River, some 200m away.

The situation came to public attention late last month when the Mail was called to the site off the end of Parker St because of concerns over the smell from the estimated 300 cubic metres of rotting chickens and bark.

The company was then fined $750 for breaching an abatement order issued by the council last year requiring Birdhurst to halt the operation.

Mr Smith said on Thursday staff were aware of the slot in the bund. It was to be blocked up on Thursday evening and more bark added to the pile of rotting chickens to reduce the smell.

"We believe that it was part of the previous consent requirement to manage the leachate. The previous consent had leachate management provisions in it. The composting material is isolated from the slot by clean bark and shell material.

"While I do not believe that there is any need to worry about any potential discharge to groundwater we will sample the groundwater next week to put the public's mind at rest."

Mr Smith said staff were following up on the issue of the unconsented compost operation occurring on the site that breaches the volume and odour regulations. 

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