A major report has warned that every household in New Zealand may be paying $200 more a year for their electricity because of a massive subsidy to the alum
Tiwai Point: Coastal erosion threatening monitoring bores
18 May, 2021 10:29 PM
5 minutes to read
By Phil Pennington of RNZ
New environmental data at Tiwai Pt aluminium smelter shows sea level rise is destroying bores within scores of metres of where 100,000 tonnes of hazardous waste is stored.
Coastal erosion has already shut down one bore used to monitor groundwater for pollution, and threatens to take out a second.
These bores are within five metres of sand dunes, a few metres behind which sits 106,000 tonnes of spent cell liner (SCL) waste - which contains cyanide and fluoride - on a giant concrete pad.
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Government was preparing to directly subsidise Rio Tinto s transmission costs
16 Apr, 2021 05:00 PM
9 minutes to read
Within an hour of Rio Tinto announcing a strategic review of Tiwai Point, Labour ministers promised there would be no financial assistance from the Government. Photo / Gregor Richardson
Within an hour of Rio Tinto announcing a strategic review of Tiwai Point, Labour ministers promised there would be no financial assistance from the Government. Photo / Gregor Richardson
In public the Government was clear: whatever Rio Tinto might threaten to do with the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter, taxpayers were not going to simply write a cheque to stave off closure.
Tiwai Point: Another 75,000 tonnes of toxic waste revealed to be stored near beach at smelter
7 Mar, 2021 09:03 PM
11 minutes to read
Officials told a select committee that the Tiwai Point smelter s legal liability to remediate the site has been difficult to pin down . Photo / Gregor Richar
RNZ
By Phil Pennington, of RNZ
The Bluff aluminium smelter has revealed it has another 75,000 tonnes of highly toxic hazardous waste stored in buildings at Tiwai Point - and does not have a solution what to do with it yet.
The company says all 181,000 tonnes of the waste - another 106,000 tonnes is on a concrete pad close to the beach - is safe and secure.