Elected members have agreed to a plan to remove contaminated sawdust, wood offcuts and sand from Tāhunanui’s Back Beach, opting to reinstate the area with low-level dunes and build a new, repositioned car park at the 7 March Council meeting.

The overall cost is $5.8 million.

Resolution:

That the Council

1. Receives the report Tāhunanui Back Beach Site Remediation - Options Report (R28060) and its attachments (196698121-55850, 196698121-55851 and 196698121-56102); and

2. Confirms that the best option to remediate the contamination is to remove the contaminated sawdust and sand from Tāhunanui Back Beach to York Valley Landfill and to restore the site by grading and planting to establish low level dunes and establishing an alternative carpark ideally without reducing the number of carparks at Tāhunanui Back Beach, for an estimated cost of $5.8m; and

3. Confirms that site remediation at Tāhunanui Back Beach requires a significant portion of the $5.8m estimated cost to be funded by Central Government through its Ministry for the Environment Contaminated Sites Remediation Fund; and

4. Requests the Chief Executive to continue discussions with the Government to confirm its commitment to provide significant funding towards Council’s preferred option of removing the contaminated sawdust and sand from Tāhunanui Back Beach to York Valley Landfill and to restore Tāhunanui Back Beach by grading and planting to establish low level dunes and establishing an alternative carpark ideally without reducing the number of carparks at the subject site for an estimated cost of $5.8m; and

5. Requests the Chief Executive to report back once Central Government has advised its commitment to funding for remediation and restoration of Tāhunanui Back Beach; and

6. Confirms that until a permanent solution is implemented the Tāhunanui Back Beach will continue to be managed to contain the contamination.