Reefton

On January 22, 2019, Renew Energy Limited (REL) lodged a resource consent application to store 132,000 one-tonne bales of waste on a 2-hectare site on the edge of Reefton owned by Birchfield Mines. Birchfield director Allan Birchfield is a West Coast regional councillor, along with REL director and shareholder Mark McIntyre.

At the time, REL was proposing a waste-to-energy plant for Westport. The Reefton application stated that the bales would provide fuel for the plant once commissioned and, as such, would only be stored for up to three years. 

Bales would be stacked about ten bales high, giving an approximate stack height of 12.5 m. The application also stated that about 240 bales would arrive daily, five days a week, and up to 66,000 tonnes yearly for the first two years of operation.

The Reefton community found out about the non-notified resource consent application and formed an action group against the proposal. They had concerns that if the waste-to-energy plant did not receive resource consent, Reefton would be left with a massive pile of waste and an expensive clean-up. Reefton Business Inc. hired a Queen’s Counsel (QC) to fight the application, and REL subsequently withdrew its application.

Spencerville RD, Christchurch

ERP Group operated a waste transfer station at 25 Spencerville Rd, Christchurch. They were baling municipal solid waste and construction/demolition waste, storing it on-site outside the company’s resource consent conditions. ERP owner Michael Denis Corcoran held consent to build a transfer station at the Spencerville Rd site; however, consent conditions, including sealing an access road and erecting a building, had not been met. Corcoran stated in a Stuff article dated Aug 16, 2019,  that he had not begun the construction of the waste transfer station on the site because Renew Energy Limited were using the site to store baled waste. 

In September 2019, ECan served ERP an abatement notice to remove the 4,000 bales of waste from the Spencerville Rd site by February 28, 2020. ECan records show that both REL and ERP applied to the court for a ‘stay’ of the abatement notice to allow them more time to remove the MSW bales.

An ECan timeline shows that as of March 3, 2021, 462 of the original bales were still on site at 25 Spencerville Rd, with the expectation that the remaining bales would be removed by the end of the month.

Blakes Rd., Belfast

On January 31, 2020, REL director Gerard Gallagher applied for resource consent to establish a new waste storage facility at 20 Blakes Rd, Belfast, Christchurch. The facility would store up to 40,000 bales of municipal solid waste, each approximately 1 tonne, for a maximum 5-year period.

The 20 Blakes Road site is within a flood zone and adjacent to Kaputone Creek (sound familiar?). The creek and the site are located within the role of Te Runanga O Ngai Tuarhurir in a Runanga-sensitive area.

Information about the proposal was provided to Mahaanui Kurataiao Limited (Mahaanui), which works on behalf of Ngāi Tūāhuriri, on the same day, lodging the resource consent application for processing with ECan.

REL withdrew its resource consent application on 7, 2020.

Woolston, Sockburn, and Christchurch

In addition to holding consent to build a transfer station at Spencerville Rd, Corcoran had consent to operate waste transfer stations at Port Hills Rd in Woolston and McAlpine Street, Sockburn.

A Stuff article dated Nov 20, 2021, titled ‘Waste operator gambling on $350 million waste to energy plant going ahead.’ quoted ERP Groups managing director Mike Corcoran as saying his company’s plant in Sockburn, Christchurch, “had geared up to turn demolition debris into bales of refuse-derived fuel (RDF)” for use in a still-to-be-built waste-to-energy plant planned for Waimate.

 “I’m all in,” he said. “I’m 61 and if this goes out the door tomorrow, I’m at the City Mission lining up for soup and that’s not an exaggeration.”

At the time, ERP was storing  about 3,000 bales at its plant in McAlpine Street, Sockburn, with another 10,000 bales at a site in Woolston

The company was served an abatement notice in July 2021 by ECAN to remove the unlawfully stored waste from the McAlpine St site by the end of July 2021.

At the time, ECan was also aware of the bales stored at Woolston; ECan zone manager Johannes Welsch said they were working through a process with Mr Corcoran to authorise or remove them.

At the time, Mr Corcoran stated that the Waimate incinerator would need a stockpile of waste to be commissioned, hence the stockpiling of baled waste.

Mr Corcoran also said at the time that “people did not need to worry that he would put his company into liquidation and walk away, leaving landlords with an expensive waste disposal problem.” At the time, the local authorities were pressured to do something about the bales by ERP’s competitors, who believed ERP were undercutting them by not paying the costs of disposing of the rubbish at an approved disposal facility such as Kate Valley. In a Stuff article, Carl Storm from WasteCo said he was disappointed the playing field had been “tilted” by ECan allowing ERP to operate outside their agreed resource consent conditions, which is being allowed to illegally stockpile waste in unconsented sites without paying landfill disposal costs. “The advantage ERP gained by not paying disposal costs was in the millions of dollars, Storm claimed.

Redruth Landfill, Timaru

OIA requested material showed that on November 10, 2021, REL and South Island Resource Recovery (SIRRL) director Paul Taylor emailed Andrew Dixon at Timaru District Council heads of agreement (HOA) regarding storing waste at Redruth landfill in Timaru.

The HOA stated that SIRRL intends to build a waste-to-energy plant near Waimate and will apply for resource consent in early 2022.

The HOA also stated that ERP Group was baling waste now and required a long-term storage site as soon as possible. It noted that the plant would require 50,000 tons of baled waste to be available for commissioning when the plant was constructed, which is proposed to be in early 2024.

A further 50,000 tonnes per year are to be available on a rotational basis to provide SIRRL with a feedstock buffer to cover possible supply delays.

The HOA said that TDC would lease ERP Group up to 2 hectares for an initial 3 years, commencing November 1, 2021. The lease would have 24-hour, 7-day-a-week access for the first 4 months, allowing ERP to relocate 12,000 bales from current Christchurch storage.

It also stated that ERP will be the operator responsible directly for and contracted by REL.

The HOA also stated that “when it suits Timaru DC, REL would be happy to arrange disposal of their domestic and commercial waste directly to the plant once it operates.”

The HOA was declined by Timaru DC, citing insufficient space and that storing waste for longer than 6 months would expose TDC to liability, which TDC was not willing to accept.

WWW also believes that REL attempted to acquire storage for baled waste with Waitaki District Council at a site near Palmerston.

Voluntary Liquidation

In May 2022, Corcoran placed ERP Group into liquidation, owing about $1.2 million to unsecured creditors and about $200,000 in PAYE and GST.

In addition to his debts, Corcoran left his landlords with the clean-up bill for the waste he left behind, which is thought to run into the millions.

Waste dumper owing millions now in Australia.

So, where is Mr Corcoran now, City Mission Soup Kitchen? He is essentially a fugitive living in Australia, owning millions of dollars.

The high court ordered Mr Corcoran to pay his landlord $2.8 million in September 2024. On January 17, 2024, The Press published an article by Joanne Naish stating that Corcoran is being chased for bankruptcy.

The article stated that the owners of the Port Hills Road site sought an order to have Corcoran served a bankruptcy notice, but Corcoran could not be served personally because he now lives in Australia.

In November 2021, Port Hills RD property owner Nutall Properties’ insurance company said it would not insure the property unless the bales were removed. 

In October 2022, the stored bales caught fire.

After Corcoran walked away, it was reported that Nuttall Properties paid more than $2.8 million to remove the waste.

North and South articles.

The following extract about ERP was taken from George Driver’s article in North and South magazine, ‘A Burning Question’.

‘Paul Taylor says ERP Group had taken on the risk of the project, and “it certainly had nothing to do with” SIRRL, the company proposing the Glenavy plant, which is 40 per cent owned by Renew Energy. However, documents show Renew Energy applied for resource consent to store the waste near Christchurch. Environment Court documents state that Renew Energy owned the baled waste, while ERP Group held the resource consent for the transfer station there.’

Like Chris Skelly and Michael Le Roy before him, Michael Corcoran is now added to Christchurch’s waste pile of poor waste management operators who have absconded the country, leaving behind expensive clean-up bills. ERP’s Michael Corcoran could be seen as somewhat of a victim of REL’s inability to commission a waste-to-energy plant despite numerous attempts. Fortunately, the community of Reefton and the Timaru and Waitaki District Councils had the foresight to see the pitfalls ahead.