'Toxic' shock for polluters

Visiting Australian tourists had an expensive lesson in environmental protection after a ‘toxic’ mistake in Wanaka on Sunday night, Queenstown Lakes District harbourmaster Marty Black said.

After mistakenly ‘self-filling’ a diesel van with petrol, late at night, the perpetrators moved the van to the back of the garage and proceeded to dump the petrol onto the ground, before deploying highly toxic anti-freeze to flush the tank.

“What they didn’t realise is that their lack of good judgement was caught on video surveillance,” Mr Black said.

With assistance from the Wanaka Police, QLDC’s regulatory arm (Lakes Environmental Limited) was able to track down the culprits.

“It’s turned out to be an expensive holiday for these guys, not only will they be slapped with an instant fine of $750 but the Council will also be seeking the cost of the clean-up and in this case it was a really lethal mix,” he said.

Because of the toxic nature of the anti-freeze, soil had to be removed and carted to Dunedin.

“It looks like the clean-up will be in the vicinity of $3100 - significantly more than the cost of a return flight to Sydney,” Mr Black said.

Acts that violated the environment - and in this case in such close proximity to iconic Lake Wanaka - beggared belief.

“There is a lesson here for everyone that pollutants have to be dealt with correctly, in this case there were a number of people that could have been contacted to assist to do the right thing,” Mr Black said.

He also urged members of the community to ring the Council immediately if they suspected something being dumped.

“This thoughtless behaviour is not okay in our community,” Mr Black said.