National Park refuse station works well, mostly

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 569, 17 January 1995, Page 3

National Park refuse station works well, mostly

The new refuse transfer station in National Park has been in operation for a little over a month, with council staff pleased with the manner in which the majority of the public look after and use the facility. However, there have been a few instances where the wrong type of refuse was deposited. said council chief executive Cliff Houston The transfer station has been designed to accommodate domestic refuse. For large items of waste, ie refrigerators, washing machines, building materials and vegetation, the council asks that this material be deposited at the T aumarunui or Ohakune landfills or be stored on the owner's property until the next six monthly inorganic/ organic collection which is scheduled for April/May this year. The depositing of hot ashes or the burning of refuse on this site or in the bins is prohibited. During the week before Christmas the fire brigade was called out to extinguish a fire in one of the refuse bins. Council is aware that the closing of the landfill has inconvenienced some people, but as its closure was an indirect result of

the Resource Management Act, it is beyond Council' s control. To upgrade and operate the National Park and other landfills to a standard which is environmentally , socially and culturally acceptable would not be costeffecti ve, and a transfer station provides the most economic solution, said Mr Houston. Council would appreciate it if all refuse is deposited within the bins and thanks members of the public for their co-opera-tion. Gulls going? A consequence of the closure of the National Park dump could be a decline in the population of the Tama Saddle gull colony. Whakapapa Department of Conservation staff have noticed that the regular 'communiting' of gulls from the colony in the national park to the dump has stopped. Without the ready food supply they say the colony may reduce in population. They say they will be monitoring the situation. (Perhaps there is something in the Resource Management Act that covers conservation of rubbish dumps to esnure the survival of seagulls? - Editor).