Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s Kopeopeo Canal Remediation Project in Whakatane has won the Australasian Land and Ground Water Association (ALGA) project excellence award for Best Regional Remedial Project at last month’s awards ceremony.
During the past few years, the project has successfully completed the removal and storage of around 35,000m³ of contaminated sediment into two containment sites.
This substantial undertaking, to ensure the contamination is safely removed and contained, and make the canal safe for future generations has now been recognized by the industry body promoting sustainable management of contaminated land and groundwater, ALGA.
“The Kopeopeo Project was recognized for outstanding work as the Best Regional Remediation Project and we were also runners up in two other categories – the best Sustainable Remediation Project and Best Remedial Project (over $1m). There are some incredibly complex and large-scale remediation works happening within Australasia at this time so to have the recognition of peers for our work here in Whakatāne was an honor,” said Brendon Love, Project Manager.
“I’d also like to acknowledge the contractors, in particular EnviroWaste who led the construction and dredging team over here for many years.”
Mr Love also added that the containment sites were starting to look more like their final form, with clean fill now covering most of the sites, grass seeded and the first of the trees planted.