PAST PROPOSALS - The West Coast
Renew Energy Limited (REL) has been trying to build a waste-to-energy plant since 2016. They have targeted several small towns with accommodating mayors keen to support their proposals.
First Port of Call: Westport.
A North and South magazine article recently quoted director Paul Taylor saying that Mayor Howard invited the then “small investment group” to investigate building a waste-to-energy plant in Westport to revive a struggling local economy. Taylor was also reported as saying that Buller was attractive because coal wagons travelling from the West Coast to the East Coast were returning empty, and the wagons could be filled with rubbish for the return trip.
It was reported that Howard, at the expense of the ratepayers, travelled to England to visit a waste-to-energy plant. He was also funded by REL to travel to China to visit a plant near Shanghai.
In 2019, Stuff obtained emails that revealed Howard had signed an agreement with CNTY in secret, without the approval of his council, while in China. The agreement stated that the council would supply water, build a road to the plant, own the land, lease it back to the company, and supply a landfill for toxic ash from the plant. The fact that these details were not considered by the full council, and more importantly, the public, raises serious questions about transparency and accountability.
Further scandal ensued when REL director and shareholder Gerard Gallagher was investigated by the State Services Commission for fraud in his role while working for the Christchurch Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA)
Gallagher was subsequently prosecuted by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and found guilty of corruption. He was sentenced to 12 months supervision, with the judge stating that he narrowly escaped a prison term.
Gallagher had also sent emails to council employees stating, “How can we legally shut up?” a journalist who was saying too much.
After the SFO investigation commenced, Gallagher relinquished his directorship and sold his shares in REL; however, he has continued to work for the company behind the scenes.
Reefton
While REL was commissioning the building of a WTE plant in Westport, they applied for a resource consent to stockpile 132,000 tonnes of waste at an old coal yard on the edge of Reefton township owned by Birchfield mines. The application stated that ERP Group would rail the waste to the site.
Worried about the threat of the incinerator never being built and the company walking away and leaving the town with the clean-up, business group, Reefton Inc. hired a Queen’s Counsel to stop it. REL subsequently withdrew its application.
Hokitika
The Westport fiasco and subsequent public fallout made it too hard for REL to continue to pursue the Buller region. This saw them move on to Hokitika, where they had another eagerly awaiting mayor, Bruce Smith.
REL’s poor form continued; OIA released material showing that director Kevin Stratful, working as the West Coast Regional Council’s economic manager and Development West Coast consultant, had promoted the waste-to-energy plant via his work emails.
Hokitika locals rallied and formed the opposition group Westland Not Wasteland.
Belfast
After REL withdrew its consent application to store waste at Reefton, ERP Group continued to bale and store waste around Christchurch. This included a site on Spencerville Road near Belfast where they stored 4000 bales of waste. Locals complained about the waste, saying it “smelt like hell” and that some of the bales were torn and attracting vermin.
Although ERP Group had applied for consent to discharge contaminants into the air from a waste transfer and processing facility on the site, that consent was inactive subject to a sealed access road and a building being constructed. ERP did not have permission to store municipal solid waste on site. ERP Group owner Michael Corcoran said at the time he had not begun construction of the waste transfer station on the site because it was being used by Renew Energy to store the baled waste. ECan served ERP and REL with an abatement notice to remove the unlawfully stored waste from the site; the bales were removed over a long and drawn-out period.
The unlawful storing of waste didn’t stop there
ERP owner Michael Corcoran operated two waste transfer stations in Woolston and Sockburn and was reportedly baling and stockpiling waste while waiting for a Waste-to-energy plant to be built in Waimate. This involved the storage of 10,000 bales of waste. ECan again served ERP abatement notices to remove the baled waste from the unapproved sites. At the time, Corcoran stated that he had been operating at the sites for four years without complaint.
A short time later, ERP Group was placed into liquidation proceedings. ERP walked away, leaving their landlords with the removal of the waste, which is believed to have cost more than $3 million.
Documents sourced through an official information act request showed that REL and SIRRL director Paul Taylor had attempted to get Timaru District Council (TDC) to sign a heads of agreement via a lease agreement between WDC and ERP group to store 50-70,000 bales of waste for an approximately three year period while the commissioning of a Waimate incinerator at council-owned Redruth landfill. Then a further 50,000 bales per year on a rotational basis to provide a feedstock buffer as a backup to any supply delays.
Paul Taylor was recently quoted in a North & South article when questioned about REL and SIRRL’S connection to ERP Group, stating that ERP Group had taken on the risk of the project and “it certainly had nothing to do with SIRRL”. However, the OIA material shows how closely connected the companies were.
It is also important to note that SIRRL proposes to burn 365,000 tonnes of waste annually. The bales range between 700kg – 1200kg, so approximately 365,000 bales are required a year. That’s 1,000 bales a week. The stockpile in Christchurch would last ten days; therefore, it would be a relatively insignificant amount in scale. Corcoran had stated that he had been operating for four years at the Sockburn and Woolston sites. With this in mind, the company would require numerous baling operations in multiple locations around the South Island. SIRRL proposes that 260,000 tonnes of the necessary waste be sourced from Canterbury, mainly Christchurch; this would require numerous storage locations; this storage issue had proved problematic for ERP and eventually resulted in their downfall.
SIRRL’S resource consent application states that REL will be contracted to source and provide waste to the incinerator.