One of the leading lights behind the restoration of Kihikihi’s Alpha Hotel has come out in favour of a waste to energy plant in Te Awamutu.
Bill Harris
Bill Harris is Hamilton based but is a member of two trusts operating around Te Awamutu which pay rates in Waipā.
In his submission to the Environmental Protection Agency board of inquiry due to be heard in June, he says he supports all parts of Global Contracting Solutions resource consent application to build and run a Waste to Energy Incinerator in Racecourse Road.
“I have spent time with the present landowner Chris Venn and his family who I have found to be very genuine people,” he wrote.
“They are learned town and country citizens who spent considerable time, study and resources looking into this proposal before agreeing to even sell their land to Global Contracting Solutions.
“Likewise, I have thought long and hard about alternatives to landfill options for our waste and believe waste to energy is the best most present option we have. Zero waste is a good goal but at present there remains waste which as a country we are not able to recycle.”
He said he was not an expert in all the science of the application but had watched and read about incinerators overseas.
“I have visited countries like Singapore where incinerators are used to exchange waste to energy and there are positive outcomes. I am not an air emission expert but I’m happy that if this consent did not meet all our national standards the applicants and this application would not have progressed even this far.”
Harris, who spent parts of his youth in Kihikihi recalled his grandfather worked for the council when it ran landfill rubbish dumps on Paterangi Road and in Kihikihi.
Kihikihi’s Alpha Hotel before its refurbishment.
“As a youngster I spent many hours in the care of my grandfather at these two dumpsites. I saw not just the size of these council run dumps but also what went into these dumps. Old tyres, stripped and unstripped car bodies, which in some case still contained fuel and oil. These old vehicles which were crushed, I believe will still be leaching into our whenua and waterways. In those days I recall we did manage to recycle bottles and some bikes.”
He suggested the proposed plant would provide an alternative to landfills, “which I strongly support… and anything that can in the first instance be recycled will be”.
He said he hoped many of the 60 jobs being created would be filled by Apakura and Hinetu iwi.
“Those employees may not presently live within the district, but in the building and operation of this plant I hope more of our people who were driven from rohe will be able to return to Te Awamutu and the district.”
