Michelle Carmichael challenged Waste Management’s technical data.

Anti-landfill campaigner Michelle Carmichael opened her submission to an independent panel last week by saying that Waste Management had been dishonest about the potential threat of contamination caused by flood damage to its landfill.

Appearing at the resource consent hearing for a proposed landfill near Wayby Valley was the moment of truth for Ms Carmichael who has been mounting her protest since 2018. In her Fight The Tip Tiaki te Whenua submission, she threw all the law books she could at the panel, citing the Resource Management Act, Treaty of Waitangi, Ministry for Environment landfill criteria and the Auckland Unitary Plan.

Perhaps the most potent part of the 83-page submission was titled ‘evidence of misleading information and ignorance’.

A map of waterways published by Waste Management in its community consultation document was compared side-by-side with a map used for its Overseas Investment Office (OIO) application.

There was a stark difference between the two, with the OIO document map being streaked with a plethora of waterways unseen in Waste Management’s map.

The commissioners heard from environmental post graduate student Rochelle Rodgers that according to NIWA data, Wayby Valley would experience 200mls of rain over a 24-hour period once every 40 years.

The panel of commissioners was shown images of Springhill Farm, adjacent to the proposed site, submerged under water after a flood in March 2007.

“Imagine how much of this ran directly from the valley of the proposed landfill,” Ms Carmichael said.

The submission included a written statement from the former farm manager of Spring Hill Estate, David Fletcher, which said underground tomos would spontaneously burst out of the hills.

“What is to say one won’t open up underneath the landfill once built and cause damage to the clay liner and spread leachates through the water aquifers and into waterways,” Ms Carmichael said.

Images of Wayby Valley, taken by geologist Matt Lomas, showed rifts that had formed like fault lines in the hills.

The panel heard that the water source for Wellsford and Te Hana drew from a flood plain that was filled by a tributary from the proposed site.

Ms Carmichael took exception to Waste Management’s claim that the proposed landfill would be non-hazardous.

She cited Auckland Council’s 2017 Waste Assessment report, saying that an estimated 17 per cent of waste to landfill contained potentially hazardous waste.