An additional $880,000 from the Government to clean up the Kopeopeo Canal near Whakatane is being welcome by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.

Environment Minister Amy Adams announced last week the Government had committed the extra funding on top of the $1.5million invested by the Government in 2011.

Regional Council natural hazards general manager Ken Tarboton says the extra funding is welcomed as clean-up cost estimates had increased as the project progressed.

'The increases are a result of further refining detail around methodology and controls for extracting the sediment.

'We have been listening to what the public has had to say during the resource consent consultation process, and looking at further controls necessary to ensure that the risk to the public is minimal.”

The Regional Council has applied for resource consent to remove and clean up sediment contaminated with dioxins from the canal.

Ken says it is working with the community on the project and has proposed using a staged approach to remove, safely store and clean up the contaminated sediment using bioremediation.

The method breaks down contaminants using a combination of fungi, bacteria and plants to degrade dioxin.

Ken says surface run-off and stormwater containing Pentachlorophenol (PCP) and dioxins from the NZ Forest Products Ltd sawmill was discharged into the canal between 1950 and 1989.

PCP was used as a wood preservative to treat timber contained dioxins that can harm human health.

The project is expected to cost $4.4million, funded by the Ministry for the Environment through the Contaminated Sites Remediation Fund (CSRF) and the Regional Council.

The Contaminated Sites Remediation Fund provides money for the investigation, remedial planning and remediation of sites that pose a risk to human health and the environment.