Rubble to go to new landfill

NICOLE MATHEWSON

Last updated 05:00 01/04/2011

 

Millions of tonnes of rubble from the February 22 earthquake will be sent to a new landfill within Bottle Lake Forest Park.

The Christchurch City Council at its extraordinary meeting yesterday decided to establish the Burwood Resource Recovery Park to sort, process and recycle 4.25 million tonnes of rubble and 380,000 tonnes of silt from the quake.

Immediately after the quake, Civil Defence allowed rubble to be taken to the former Burwood landfill and three other parts of Bottle Lake Forest Park.

Once the national state of emergency ended, getting resource consent for the landfill could take up to a year under normal measures, and a delay was not acceptable, a council report said.

About half the rubble is expected to come from the demolition of 600 buildings within the central city, 1.5 million tonnes from the demolition and repair of about 8000 homes across the city and 750,000 tonnes from damaged infrastructure, including roads and pipes.

One section of the park would be used for storing "sensitive" material, such as rubble from buildings where people had died, Cr Sally Buck, chairwoman of the Canterbury Waste Joint Committee, said.

"It needs to be treated differently from normal rubble."

The site would not become a permanent landfill but would be used to store quake rubble until other uses were found for the material. It was expected to operate for five years.

Silt would be used to rehabilitate the land after the recovery park closed.

Silt removed from the sewerage system was being treated separately.

The council said the Bottle Lake site was chosen because it was only eight kilometres from the central city and close to badly damaged eastern suburbs, and would not pose any risk to aquifers supplying the city with drinking water.

Buck said the resource recovery park would allow material to be recycled instead of being sent to the Kate Valley landfill in North Canterbury.

Up to 1500 trucks are expected to travel to the park each day during the first six months.

The park will cover one-eighth of the 845-hectare Bottle Lake Forest, leaving the rest of the park open for recreational users.