Darfield
Dump DeadDarfield
Dump DeadA highlight of the struggle was the huge public meeting attended by 1000 citizens. CAFCA, Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (New Zealand) provided invaluable information on the bad character of Waste Management. They also had their corporate code which was used effectively in lobbying.
The battle progressed for several years until the citizens held a picnic attended by several hundred at the proposed dump site (see picture above). It was there that the Prime Minister, a former local Member of Parliament, spoke vigorously against the project. But the final blow came when geological experts found that the proposed site was on top of an earthquake fault! The dump was dead and the citizenry cheered.
The citizens held the picnic at the site chosen by the six city councils - Darfield, thirty miles west of Christchurch. It was there that numerous public officials spoke against the landfill. The Prime Minister's speech against the landfill attracted national media and made the landfill a national issue.
Prime Minister Jenny Shipley had written all six mayors in the joint venture with Waste Management and a New Zealand company. The local governments were to have 50% ownership and WMI - 25%. Shipley told the mayors that she would oppose the proposal with all her "ability and resources. ... I did not want to offend the mayors," said Shipley, "but I did want them to be seized with the importance of the issue." The mayors told her to stay out of the issue and proclaimed themselves taken aback by her letter's "aggressive tone and implied threats." The Leader of the (parlimentary) Opposition said Shipley went way beyond representing her constituents.
Waste Management of New Zealand (WMNZ) has been a subsidiary of Waste Management Inc. (WMI) which has owned 60.5% of the WMNZ stock. WMNZ has been mainly located on North Island, one of the two main New Zealand islands. Their announced purchase of Waste Care Ltd. has been challenged. But in 1998 WMNZ began a major move into South Island when the Canterbury jurisdictions and WMNZ announced plans to jointly build and own a super dump. The landfill was to have a 30-50 year life.
Now that the Darfield dump is dead, WMNZ announced at its Annual Meeting that a replacement site near Darfield might take another six months to identify (THE PRESS, February 25, 2000). At that annual meeting it was revealed that WMNZ had wanted to buy WMI's holding in Australia but that had failed. WMI decided to sell to an outside source. Nevertheless, WMNZ is to become independent of WMI through a stock float which means that WMI will sell its shares. With the drop in value of the WMNZ stock, we will see whether WMI proceeds. Whether they complete their release of the company completely with elimination of directors on the WMNZ Board is also yet to be seen.
CAFCA is pleased that WMI has announced it's leaving New Zealand. In their WATCHDOG newsletter, they write - "So, this most criminal of US transnationals is selling up and quitting NZ. Good riddance. What a textbook example of rampant criminality, environmental abuse, and lack of any business ethics. In the US, it’s not the waste that’s getting managed, but rather the management that’s getting wasted. But we’re still stuck with the ubiquitous wheelie bins and the landfills, current and planned. It will be a long time before the stink left by this smelliest of TNCs fades from our nostrils."
And more from CAFCA on WMI - "WM is no longer out to conquer the world, but is retrenching to focus on its core market. In recent years, to add to the endless string of court cases against it, WM has been beset by accounting problems and management turmoil. The chickens have come home to roost."
Finally, the rhetoric of a local Councillor is worthy of our reading regarding WMI's typical litigation threats and lawsuits when he responded, "I believe that we are being subjected to the threat of litigation to get a commercial advantage. Anyone who threatens a city council with that should be told to go to hell."This remark was made back in 1995 (CHRISTCHURCH STAR, 3/22/95) when WMNZ was having trouble lining up local councils. But the deal was finally made with them and that information, in somewhat English fashion, has still been kept from the public as "commercially sensitive" in the NZ Freedom of Information laws.