Tasman District Mayor, Richard Kempthorne today welcomed the news that mercury levels in soils at the former Fruitgrowers Chemical site at Mapua are well below residential standards.
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment in a recent report recommended that further sampling of the soils in the residential area for mercury be undertaken by Council. This follows a concern by the Parliamentary Commissioner that mercury could have been re-spread through the site as a result of the clean up process.
Mayor Kempthorne said that the Council always believed that the likelihood that mercury levels were unacceptable in the soils was very low.
“The main reason the tests detected mercury at very low levels was because it occurs naturally. In the Mapua soils the maximum level recorded was 10 percent of the recommended level for residential soils. The average across the whole residential area was even better and showed that mercury levels are five percent of the standard for residential soil.”
“We are very pleased with the results and they show that mercury is not a problem at the Mapua site.” said Mayor Kempthorne.
Mayor Kempthorne said that historically there were very small quantities of mercuric sprays present on the factory site, which Council believes were stored rather than produced on the site. On the basis of pre-clean up site assessments and sampling, the Council was always confident that the concentration of mercury was low and the test results confirm the Council was correct to hold this position.
