The DOW Agroscience plant in Paritūtū, New Plymouth. Photo: Getty Images / David Hallett
- New Plymouth mayor convinced former Dow chemicals plant contaminated at high levels
- Iwi and council want remediation process sped up
- Dow has released preliminary report into contamination at Paritūtū
- Report acknowledges potential for contamination which could affect human health and the environment
The mayor of New Plymouth remains convinced the site of a former chemicals plant in the city is contaminated with the most toxic materials imaginable at high levels.
Dow Chemicals released a Preliminary Site Investigation (PDI) of its Paritūtū plant on Friday which acknowledged the potential for contamination to still exist which could affect human health and/or the environment.
Ivon Watkins - later Ivon Watkins-Dow - made the herbicides 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D at Paritūtū from 1962 through to 1987.
The herbicides, which contained toxic dioxins, were a key component of Agent Orange - the defoliant used by the US military in the Vietnam War - which has been linked to cancers and birth defects.
The Paritūtū plant was demolished in 2022, and Dow and its New Zealand-based remediation partner Tonkin & Taylor were involved in a clean-up process expected to take several years.
Tonkin & Taylor was responsible for the just completed PSI.
"It concluded that there is a potential for contamination to exist in surface soils, underlying soils, and groundwater (shallow and deep) which could affect human health, and/or the environment," Dow said in a statement.
New Plymouth mayor Neil Holdom said although the PSI was only a desktop exercise it reaffirmed fears he held about the 16-hectare site.
"I absolutely believe that site is full of some of the most toxic materials that you can imagine in New Zealand and at very high levels of concentration and that they pose a real risk to human health and to the environment, particularly the neighbouring marine park."
Dow has indicated the PSI would inform a Detailed Site Investigation (DSI) which would involve new testing.
Holdom wanted Dow to get on with it.
"My focus is on us having a really clear understanding of where they're going test and encourage that testing to happen as soon as possible.
"We want to ensure that it's a comprehensive series of tests so that we understand how much of the of toxic legacy of Dow's manufacturing on site remains, so that then we can understand what the process is going to be to manage the risk both to the people of New Plymouth, but also to the marine reserve and the environment."
Holdom wanted that new testing to begin this year.
"I think Dow has been pretty clear that they're going to own this and that they are going to follow a really good, robust process and allow independent review and then agree to to clean up. So it's good that they're acknowledging the issues."
Two hapū and two iwi had an association with the Paritūtū site. It was a shared interest area between Te Atiawa and Taranaki Iwi; Ngāti Te Whiti hapū of Te Atiawa, Ngā Mahanga, and Ngāti Tairi hapū Taranaki.
Te Kahui o Taranaki Trust chair Jacqui King said it came was no shock to mana whenua to read that there was potential for contamination to still exist at Paritūtū.
"Let's be honest, we're not surprised. You know, we've always had concerns about what was being undertaken on that whenua and for its potential to cause harm, not only to the whenua, but also to whānau.
"You know, the preliminary results don't really tell us anything other than highlight the actual risk which we, I believe we all, as a community had already identified."
King said she was pleased to see that PSI had been released and that milestone in the remediation process had been reached.
"Dow have come to the party to undertake further investigations. So it's a step in the process to get where we expect to get to which is full remediation of the site."
She wanted that process to now speed up.
Jimmy Stoppard worked as an apprentice fitter welder at Ivon Watkins Dow in his late teens.
He found it vaguely humorous that Dow was no showing concern about the health of people neighbouring the plant and the environment.
Stoppard, who was in remission from Mantle cell lymphoma, remembered washing reactors wearing nothing more than a face shield and rubber gloves for protection.
"One thing I did notice about the report was it seems that they're very concerned about soil and groundwater contamination, and that it may be hazardous to human health.
"It struck me as quite funny that they are now more worried about the affects on human health and the surrounding area than they ever were about the health of the people like me, that worked there."
Stoppard, who now lives in Melbourne, said it did not surprise him that groundwater or soils might still be contaminated.
"Whenever they needed to do anything up in the 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D reactors where that they made the stuff, they'd either steam hose the area down or they'd washed it down.
"And all that wash water basically went down the drain. It went the same way as the rainwater run-off from the forklift tyres that were running in and out of the buildings and all the rainwater run-off with all those chemicals - however diluted they may have been - went the same way, the same place, down the drains."
Stoppard was worried the site could ever be fully remediated.
Dioxins campaigner Andrew Gibbs believed the acknowledgement that there was potential for contamination at the site was not that revealing.
"People were reporting falling into contaminated waste 50, 60 years ago. This is not news. What they are trying to do is turn the narrative away from people who were directly exposed to waste in public parks adjacent to the site onto current exposure risks which will be substantially lower."
Dow has submitted the full PSI report to the Taranaki Regional Council and said the next step would be to design and complete a Detailed Site Investigation, which would include new testing, before embarking on a remediation programme.