Hon David Parker
The Government has today welcomed confirmation of waste remediation actions from Tiwai smelter owner Rio Tinto, including the removal of aluminium dross in Southland to the Tiwai site and paying the costs of doing so.
That also involves taking on the $4 million in funding commitments of the Government, councils and landowners in relation to the dross stored in the former paper mill in Mataura.
In a letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson, Energy Minister Megan Woods and Environment Minister David Parker, Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm said the company would make right its environmental performance at New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (NZAS).
The Treasury says it canât be sure the Government didnât reach a deal in the 1960s with Rio Tinto over the clean-up of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter that has since been mislaid.
A rumour was circulating at an electricity industry function hosted by Energy Minister Megan Woods in Parliament last week that a historic document setting out the smelterâs responsibilities had been lost.
However, most signs appear to point to the speculation being another piece of Southland mythology â similar to the decades-old tale that the builders of the Manapouri hydro scheme mistakenly left a bulldozer in one of its tail race tunnels before they flooded it.
Treasury can t rule out lost aluminium smelter agreement stuff.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stuff.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Lake Onslow would be a hydropower project like no other in New Zealand. An earth dam stretching one or two kilometres would be built to a seal off a natural rock basin 700 metres above sea level, which would be filled with pumped water from Lake Roxburgh to create a larger artificial lake. Depending on its final dimensions, the hydro scheme would be capable of storing between 5 and 8 terawatt-hours of electricity in the form of water, effectively acting as a giant battery back-up for the country’s power supply.
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Energy Minister Megan Woods told Parliament last month she was taking the situation in the electricity market very seriously.
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The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter had hoped as late as last week that lake levels would recover before it had to cut production.
The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter has agreed to reduce its electricity usage by about 11 megawatts by cutting its production in return for compensation from Meridian, amid fresh warnings over the continuing power market squeeze. The cut comes on top of an earlier 6MW cut and will reduce its energy consumption to 555MW. The smelter is the latest in a line of industrial power users that have curbed production amid what threatens to be a slowly unfolding power crisis triggered by low rainfall, gas production problems, and a long period of relatively low investment in new power generation.