An ammunition case full of cyanide vials has been uncovered by a dog on a rural Waikato property.
But it remains a mystery who's responsible for the dangerous discovery and how they got rid of it, with agencies pointing the finger in different directions.
The case was found on Sunday in Ngarua, just east of Morrinsville, but police say they were first notified late Monday morning.
'Someone ... had found a small ammunition box on Sunday containing vials of cyanide. The person was alerted because a dog dug it up, on a residential property on Maungakawa Road,” a police spokesperson says.
Stuff put questions to six agencies, including about whether the item had been removed and what was done with it – but none provided those answers and most suggested other organisations.
Fire and Emergency NZ 'made the item safe initially” and is working with the local council to get it removed, a police spokesperson says.
That was the end of the police involvement.
Four trucks were sent to help police on Monday, a Fire and Emergency statement says, and they'd left the Ngarua scene by 1.40pm, after just over an hour.
'Due to the industrial action we are unable to provide any further information than this,” the statement says.
Further queries were directed to Matamata-Piako District Council or Waikato Regional Council.
The former says it got the first phone call at 11am Monday and directed the caller to the regional council 'who advised that due to the nature and quantity it would be a police issue”.
Waikato Regional Council says it helped get advice for the landowner on how to safely remove and dispose of the vials.
However, the council statement says the responsibility for hazardous substance management mainly lay with the Environmental Protection Authority and Fire and Emergency, WorkSafe and the local council.
WorkSafe didn't go to Ngarua but 'contributed by advising the New Zealand Police on how the material could be safely disposed”.
And the Environmental Protection Agency is 'aware of the matter” and supporting the regional council and others where needed, a statement says.
1 comment
The thing that disturbs me most...
Posted on 22-07-2022 12:51 | By morepork
...about this is not the question of how the box and its contents came to be there, but the total lack of responsibility and buck-passing by the agencies involved. It's like a Monty Python sketch. It is obviously an EPA matter and it should have been dealt with quickly and efficiently by them. The Police could also be making enquiries into how it came to be there.
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