WELLINGTON: The New Zealand government released new guidelines for spreading potentially toxic oil drilling waste on farmland, which critics called “woefully inadequate.”
Waste from onshore oil and gas drilling, or fracking, has commonly been spread on land that has then been opened for crop growing or dairy cattle grazing, in a practice known as landfarming.
Responding to concerns about the toxic effects on the food chain, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) issued guidelines for food producers and processors about how to ensure food safety and animal welfare after spreading rocks and minerals from oil and gas wells on land.
MPI director of resource policy David Wansbrough said the guidance has been a collaboration between central and local government and industry groups.
“The science tells us there is no risk to food safety or animal welfare if there is no grazing or harvesting until the level of hydrocarbons in the soil meet specified values,” Wansbrough said in a statement.
“This isn’t about fracking or pouring oil on land. It’s about ground up rocks, mud and minerals left over from drilling very deep holes in the ground,” he said.
“The hydrocarbons are at such low concentrations that the risk is low even immediately after being spread. We have set standards in the guidelines where we can be assured that there is no risk.”
The opposition Green Party said the voluntary guidelines ignored concerns about the dangers of heavy metal contamination, and could lead to greater risks to people and animals.
“The guidelines are woefully inadequate because they fail to protect animals or humans from toxic heavy metals, and are less stringent than existing laws,” Green Party energy spokesperson Gareth Hughes said in a statement.
“The guidelines suggest that a farmer can graze stock on land that’s previously been used as a toxic petroleum waste dump, with no requirement that the soil, or the milk that the cows produce, be tested for contamination by persistent heavy metal contaminants. “
