The public is being asked to avoid an area in the Waimakariri River Regional Park due to the discovery of asbestos-containing material at an old dumping site. 

Environment Canterbury has been advised by contaminated land experts that as long as the material remains undisturbed, the risk to human health is very low.

Warning signs and concrete barriers have been erected around the contaminated area on the north bank of the Waimakariri River, west of Downs Road. 

ECAN is currently working on a containment and removal plan for the contaminated material. 

ECAN’s manager of Parks and Forest Chuck Dowdell told Chris Lynch Media, “Waimakariri River Regional Park is still open and safe to use, but we’re asking people to stay away from the contaminated area for their own safety. As long as the asbestos-containing material remains undisturbed, the risk to human health is very low.”

Dowdell said the rubbish is from a number of different sources, including a farm dump site.

“The area seems to have been used for fly tipping in past decades, with people dropping rubbish off the top of a terrace and into this wooded area. The asbestos-containing material is mixed in amongst other rubbish, so we can’t say what type of buildings it may have come from,” he said.

Anyone found dumping any rubbish in the regional parks can get an instant $750 fine under the Resource Management Act.