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Appendix: Potentially Contaminating Activities

Hazardous Activities and Industries List (HAIL) – from the Ministry for the Environment, January 2004

This hazardous activities and industries list defines industries and activities that typically use or store hazardous substances which could cause contamination if they escaped from safe storage, were disposed of on the site, or were lost to the environment through their use. The fact that an activity or industry appears on the list does not mean that hazardous substances were used or stored on all sites occupied by that activity or industry, nor that a site of this sort will have hazardous substances present in the land. The list merely indicates that such activities and industries are more likely to use or store hazardous substances, and therefore there is a greater probability of site contamination occurring than other uses or activities. Conversely, an activity or industry that does not appear on the list does not guarantee such a site will not be contaminated. Each case must be considered on its merits, considering the information at hand. In applying the list, it must be remembered that the activity may only have occupied a small part of the site, and therefore the possibility of contamination will also be for a small part of the site.

  1. Abrasive blasting – carrying out abrasive blast cleaning (other than cleaning carried out in fully enclosed booths) or disposing of abrasive blasting material.
  2. Acid/alkali plant, formulation and bulk storage.
  3. Agrichemical spray contractor’s premises used for filling and washing out tanks for commercial agrichemical application.
  4. Airports – fuel storage, workshops, wash-down areas, stormwater runoff from hard standing.
  5. Analysts – commercial analytical laboratory sites.
  6. Asbestos products production, use, and disposal. Also sites with buildings containing asbestos products known to be in a deteriorated condition.
  7. Asphalt or bitumen manufacture or bulk storage – manufacturing asphalt or bitumen, or bulk storage of these products, other than at a single-use site used by a mobile asphalt plant.
  8. Battery manufacture or recycling – assembling, disassembling, manufacturing or recycling batteries (other than storing batteries for retail sale).
  9. Brake lining manufacturers, repairers and recyclers.
  10. Cement or lime manufacturing – manufacturing cement or lime from limestone material using a kiln and storing wastes from the manufacturing process.
  11. Cemeteries.
  12. Chemical manufacture and formulation and bulk storage, such that land use consent is required.
  13. Coal and coke yards.
  14. Concrete manufacture and bulk cement storage.
  15. Defence works and defence establishments, including ordinance storage and training areas where live firing is carried out.
  16. Drum and tank reconditioning or recycling.
  17. Dry-cleaning plants – restricted to premises where dry-cleaning is carried out and solvents are stored.
  18. Electrical transformers – manufacturing, repairing or disposing of electrical transformers or other heavy electrical equipment.
  19. Electronics – manufacturing and reconditioning.
  20. Engine reconditioning – use of solvents and degreasers.
  21. Explosive production or bulk storage of explosives.
  22. Fertiliser manufacture – manufacturing or bulk storage of agriculture fertiliser.
  23. Foundry operations – commercial production of metal products by injecting or pouring molten metal into moulds and associated activities.
  24. Gasworks – manufacture of town gas from coal or oil feed stocks.
  25. Gun, pistol or rifle ranges or areas with lead shot deposition.
  26. Iron and steel works.
  27. Landfill sites.
  28. Livestock dip or spray race operations.
  29. Market gardens, orchards, glasshouses or other areas where the use of persistent agricultural chemicals occurred.
  30. Metal treatment or coating – including polishing, anodising, galvanising, pickling, electroplating, heat treatment using cyanide compounds and finishing, curing works or commercially finishing leather.
  31. Mining and extractive industries and mineral processing – including chemically or physically extracting metalliferous ores, exposure of faces or release of groundwater containing hazardous contaminants and storing hazardous wastes, including waste dumps and tailings dams, but not gravel extraction (just note that these areas can be included because of fuel storage).
  32. Motor vehicle workshops.
  33. Paint manufacture and formulation.
  34. Pest control – commercially operating premises (or former pest destruction boards, now regional Council sites) where storage and preparation of pesticide occurs, including preparation of poisoned baits and filling or washing of tanks.
  35. Pesticide manufacture (including animal poisons, insecticides, fungicides and herbicides) – commercially manufacturing, blending, mixing or formulating pesticides.
  36. Petroleum or petrochemical industries or storage, including oil production and operating a petroleum depot, terminal, blending plant or refinery, retail or commercial refuelling facility, and facilities for recovery, reprocessing or recycling petroleum-based materials and bulk storage above and below ground.
  37. Pharmaceutical manufacture – commercially manufacturing, blending, mixing or formulating pharmaceuticals, including animal remedies and illicit drug manufacturing.
  38. Port activities – including dry docks and ship and boat maintenance facilities.
  39. Power stations and switch-yards.
  40. Printing – commercial printing using metal type, inks and dyes, or solvents.
  41. Railway yards – operating a railway yard including goods-handling yards, workshops, refuelling facilities and maintenance areas.
  42. Sawmills – use of anti-sap stain chemicals during milling.
  43. Scrap yards – operating a scrap yard, including an automotive dismantling or wrecking yard or scrap metal yard.
  44. Service stations.
  45. Smelting or refining – fusing or melting metalliferous ores or refining the metal.
  46. Tannery, fellmongers or hide curing – operating a tannery or fellmongers or hide curing works, or commercially finishing leather.
  47. Transport depots.
  48. Storage tanks and drum storage for fuel, chemicals and liquid waste.
  49. Waste storage, treatment or disposal, including land disposal of wastes, but not the use of bio solids as soil conditioners.
  50. Wood treatment and preservation and bulk storage of treated timber.
  51. Wool, hide and skin merchants (e.g. drying, scouring).
  52. Any site that has been, or could be, subject to the migration of hazardous substances from hazardous substances present in soil or water on adjacent sites.
  53. Any other facility or activity that stores, uses or disposes of hazardous substances in sufficient quantity that intentional or accidental discharge of the substance could be a risk to human health or the environment

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