Channel Infrastructure is committed to maintaining the high standard of environmental performance and protecting the unique environment in which we operate. We take these commitments very seriously, because Marsden Point is our home too.
We have a ‘no spill culture’ and strict procedures in place to ensure that we are acting as responsible custodians over the land upon which we operate.
Over the past few years, we have invested $25 million into site cleaning, preventing hydrocarbons leaving the site, and bolstering the resilience of our water treatment systems. We are currently committing significant funds to upgrading our tanks bunds and fire systems which will help to minimise impacts on the environment in the event of a significant incident.
Our Marsden Point site holds a 35-year Resource Consent to operate. This consent was granted in 2021 following a detailed environmental impact assessment of our processes, and operations. This assessment reviewed our operations’ effects on the harbour, land, air quality and the surrounding community, and allows us to pursue the range of energy opportunities under consideration.
As part of our Resource Consent, we maintain strict protections and a high level of environmental standards, and to ensure any operations that take place on our site do so in a responsible manner.
Protecting the land on which we operate
Our robust land management systems are designed to ensure our past, current, and future operations will continue to have minimal impact on the environment around us.
These systems include:
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- Regular monitoring and testing of our groundwater well network to measure hydrocarbon contamination under the site
- Monitoring of the 28 wells around our boundary. This provides a good picture of the groundwater quality leaving our site
- Use of recovery wells which contain and remove hydrocarbon contamination under the site
- Management of earthworks and site disturbance in accordance with our Ground Contamination Management Plan
- Assessment of soils during works where they are potentially contaminated to determine if the soil is suitable for use on site
- A robust permit to work system, which requires us to put in place controls to minimise risk to our workers and the environment. All work on site requires a permit to work.
- Clean up of any leaks or spillages on site
- An awareness of historic site practices which ensures adequate environmental controls are in place prior to the execution of any significant works on site.
- Cleaning our decommissioned plant and associated infrastructure to ensure an residual contamination is removed from site.
Waste management systems
Steel, aluminium, paper and other waste from the Marsden Point site is recycled responsibly. As part of our waste management programme, we regularly recycle steel, aluminium and wood.
Wastewater management
Decommissioning of our process plant and all of the crude tanks on site has resulted in a significant reduction in associated process water used on site. As a result, the water discharge to the harbour has significantly decreased, further reducing our impact on the harbour. We continue to undertake ongoing cleaning of our water network to further reduce contaminants that may enter into the harbour.
Erosion management strategy
Recent studies have observed and confirmed evidence of erosion at the site boundary, and identified the future possibility of ongoing erosion events, such as storms and tsunamis aggravated by sea level rise and changing weather patterns because of climate change.
Our erosion management strategy aims to manage the dynamic coastal environment in which we operate in a way that provides resilience to our nationally significant infrastructure while appropriately recognising its wider social, cultural, and environmental values.
In 2023 we undertook a climate change risk assessment for the site identifying potential threats to the site over the 50 to 100 years. This provided information on how we can manage the risks of coastal erosion and inundation due to storm surge and sea level rise. This information will be used to inform and influence the site’s long term asset management plan to ensure that our site is resilient to the effects of climate change and associated effects. This is backed by ongoing monitoring of the coastal dunes along our boundary.
