Sludge Watch ==> New Zealand - newest volcano made from sewage sludge? Pukepoopoo?

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Aukland NZ :  A volcanic island with an imitation volcanic cone made of 
sewage sludge for the tourists to ogle.

Its actually a plan.  Maybe LA should consider something like that...maybe 
an enormous Elvis made of sludge.  Maybe Washington DC could have George W 
Bush monument...but made out of ... you know.  Sort of a 'recycled' Mount 
Rushmore.

Kinda like the paper sludge 'berms' to nowhere in Ontario.
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Brian Rudman: That's no dump, that's a landscaping marvel
Wednesday April 11, 2007
By Brian Rudman


In 40 years, tourists arriving in Auckland, world heritage city of 
volcanoes, will be able to peer from their plane window as they come into 
land, at the city's newest cone - Pooketutu.

A world first. A mountain carefully moulded from human "biosolids," into the 
shape of the original volcanic cone, destroyed 80 years earlier to provide 
fill for the airport runway.

The conservation-minded amongst them might well be impressed. So too, the 
students of the bizarre. As for the rest, well, I hope the Auckland Regional 
Authority ties up the copyright on all postcard imagery. Cards should be in 
great demand, as every Aucklander will have contributed to the re-creation 
of Puketutu. Why shouldn't the regional coffers reap the rewards?

Don't get me wrong, I think the just-announced deal over the future of 
Manukau Harbour's Puketutu Island is brilliant - if only because it brings 
the 200ha waterfront island into public ownership as a regional park, 
protecting it from further destruction or commercial exploitation.


But the deal does much more. It solves the problem of how to dispose of the 
4.5 million tonnes or more of biosolids Aucklanders will flush through the 
sewers over the next 30 years.

Instead of upwards of 40 or so articulated truckloads of the treated stuff 
trundling out of the Mangere Treatment Plant each day and through the 
streets of suburbia to some, as yet undiscovered, landfill site, the 
material can make the short trip across the causeway to the huge excavation 
crater created by half a century of quarrying.

Whether it's piped across in slurry form, or by some form of conveyer belt, 
or just trucked has not been decided. What is certain is that any of these 
is less environmentally intrusive than trucking the waste out across the 
region.

If that's not enough good news, Watercare Services, the public facility that 
has brokered this $25 million deal with the present owners, Kelliher 
Charitable Trust, will hand ownership of the island to the Auckland Regional 
Council for use as a regional park.

Adjacent as it is to the Manukau City historic coastal stonefields 
parklands, Aucklanders will end up with a great isthmus park on the Manukau 
Harbour, just a short drive from the homes of half the region's population.

This has long been a dream of Watercare chief executive Mark Ford. I recall 
him quietly lobbying for it in 2000 when thoughts were belatedly turning to 
possible millennium projects for Auckland. We all missed that boat, as 
usual, but Mr Ford has quietly kept up the pressure.

Now the deal has been done, he's remained in the background, but if it's 
anyone's victory, it's his.

All that remains is for Watercare to obtain the necessary resource consents 
from Manukau City Council and Auckland Regional Council. I guess the 
independent commissioners could always say no. But so far, I've heard of no 
one lining up to oppose it.

Only one fly remains in this otherwise ideal ointment. That's compost maker 
Living Earth's determination to use part of Puketutu Island to compost 
upwards of 75,000 tonnes of garden waste a year for the next 10 years.

The Environment Court granted Living Earth a resource consent for the 
activity despite the vigorous opposition of Watercare and Manukau City and 
Auckland Regional councils. The ARC has appealed against that decision.

The happy ending to this tale would be for Living Earth to voluntarily 
abandon its plans for the island and let it become the regional park we all 
want it to be.

My understanding is that Manukau and Waitakere City have offered Living 
Earth alternative sites.

In Waitakere's case, the proposal includes the suggested expansion of the 
modern "in vessel" composting system that city uses.

Such indoor composting is the 21st century solution that the region needs, 
not the antiquated outdoor, machine-turning system proposed for Puketutu.

With such a good solution at Puketutu in the region's grasp, everyone 
involved needs to get together - and that includes Living Earth - and come 
up with the right answer.