Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Wellington Water is working against the clock to get raw sewage out of its Moa Point Treatment Plant before it goes septic.

Early Wednesday morning the plant was flooded by raw sewage – causing it to shut down and be evacuated.

Some of that waste had been taken to landfill – while the rest of it was now being pumped out of the facility.

The water company’s board chair Nick Leggett said they’re working hard to get the material out of the plant prior to it becoming septic.

“That has been a focus from pretty much the moment that we knew there was something wrong.

“It was getting this place clean so it is a safe place to work and so it is not emitting obviously a stench.”

That sewage was being pumped from the plant’s 1.8 kilometre long outfall pipe to reduce harm to beaches.

Wellington Water believed some issue with that pipe had caused the major failure of the plant.

Leggett said divers had been inspecting it but were yet to find any form of blockage.

On Friday it was reported Wellington Mayor Andrew Little would be raising the Moa Point treatment plant failure with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Monday.

The meeting was scheduled already but Little said it would be a topic of discussion.

Little said one of the questions in the days ahead would be about setting up an appropriate investigation or inquiry into what happened.

“We can’t let this happen again,” he said. “We can’t let such a critical plant for a modern city fail in the way that this has and cause the environmental degradation that it has.

“It’s important we get the facts and it’s important we understand what we need to do to prevent it from happening again.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

An explosion that put a forklift driver in hospital for nine weeks could have been avoided with basic safety controls, WorkSafe said.

The worker was seriously burned when several condemned, nine kilogram gas bottles exploded and their forklift caught fire in March, 2024 at Tank Test in Papatoetoe, Auckland.

The company was fined more than $300,000, including reparations of $5,000, in a reserved decision of the Manukau District Court.

In sentencing Tank Test, Judge Gus Andrée Wiltens described the hazard as “clear and obvious”. He noted the company could have eliminated the risk at no cost by ensuring forklift and degassing operations never happened at the same time.

WorkSafe principal inspector, David Worsfold said the case highlighted a significant gap between knowing what should be done and actually doing it.

“This worker ended up in hospital because his employer didn’t take simple steps to eliminate an obvious risk,” he said.

Worsfold added that every business, regardless of industry, could learn from what went wrong at Tank Test and that procedures that weren’t monitored and enforced were just paper.

“This case isn’t just about flammable gases. It’s about a pattern we see across industries,” he said.

“Businesses may identify risks but can fail to follow through with proper controls. They have procedures but don’t ensure they’re working in practice.”

WorkSafe said that manufacturing was a priority sector for the regulator, as injury rates in manufacturing had remained stubbornly high over the past decade.

Tank Test has been approached for comment.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Waitangi Day celebrations started with a dawn service, which included a rowdy reception for the deputy prime minister, a waka flotilla and powerful haka.

Follow coverage on our live blog below.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

At least half a dozen Christchurch bottle stores have agreed to stop selling a vodka-infused guarana RTD in an effort to get or renew their liquor licences – the result of a campaign its manufacturer feels was driven by a “personally-motivated vendetta” against their product.

The alcohol shops have agreed to or suggested the condition during their applications to the Christchurch District Licensing Committee since 2022.

It prompted the owner of Nitro Vodka, National Brands, to take legal action, claiming the drink was being unfairly targeted. However, Justice Rob Osborne ruled the licensing committee was within its rights to grant liquor licences with the ‘no-Nitro’ condition.

Paul McMahon of Community Action on Youth and Drugs Otautahi, who championed the case against Nitro, said he wanted alcohol-and-caffeine-mixed drinks – not just Nitro – banned in New Zealand.

National Brands director Steve Shaw says that, as a Linwood Community Board member and a member of Christchurch Council, McMahon should be “fair and impartial”, but Shaw felt McMahon “chose a very biased, anti-competitive and a personally motivated vendetta against Nitro”.

McMahon told Checkpoint on Wednesday Nitro was particularly popular with young men, about university age.

He said the company’s social-marketing campaign targeted this demographic, and was associated with binge and harmful drinking.

“In my community, I’ve got footage of people drinking it in the middle of the day, outside bottle stores. One guy chugging some and throwing up out the back of one.

“It’s really associated with binge drinking, excessive and harmful drinking.”

Shaw took exception to McMahon’s comments Nitro was the “most well-distributed and well-promoted product”, as similar products like Smirnoff and KGB had been around “a lot longer, are owned by massive multi-national companies and have the largest distribution models in the country”.

“The marketing of Nitro is no different than many brands,” Shaw said to RNZ on Thursday.

“Nitro has not had a single complaint from Advertising Standards Authority complaint in since 2021. Even then, the complaints prior to 2021 were from anti-alcohol campaigners and not once from a normal member of the public.”

McMahon said mixing caffeine and alcohol is generally a bad idea.

“Mixing caffeine – a stimulant – and alcohol together elevates all the risks associated with alcohol. Apart from being harder on your nervous system, it also impairs judgement further and it impairs the perception of intoxication.

“It makes poor decisions more likely in every respect, and so it also makes people more likely to stay up longer and drink more,” he said. “Think of all the worst things about excessive and inappropriate use of alcohol, and compound those.”

“McMahon talks of harm from caffeine, but not once in any hearing or at any stage has [McMahon] provided any evidence of his made-up claims,” Shaw said.

While Nitro was legal, McMahon said the local district licensing committees retained broad statutory powers to tailor licensing conditions to control alcohol-related harm, which could include banning specific products.

“The reason for that is that the purpose of the act is to reduce harm from alcohol. There’s no, like, prior right to sell alcohol.

“The whole basis of the Sale and Supply Alcohol Act is that it’s a product that is different and only the act confers the right to sell alcohol, it’s not like a normal product.”

“McMahon should consider factual evidence-based criteria, before threatening hard-working, privately-owned liquor stores and manipulating the law to ban a legal alcohol beverage,” Shaw said. “Particularly as Nitro is no different than Smirnoff, KGB or at least six other products, with exactly the same guarana and alcohol content.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Wellington Mayor Andrew Little says he will raise what he has called a “catastrophic” failure of the city’s sewage plant with the prime minister.

Wellington Water has released its first batch of samples, since wastewater from its Moa Point treatment plant started spilling into the ocean close to the shoreline.

Screened wastewater is now being discharged straight into the Cook Strait again after days of being discharged near the shoreline on the South Coast.

On Wednesday the Moa Point wastewater plant’s lower floors completely flooded when sewage backed up in the 1.8km outfall pipe, which normally sends treated wastewater into the Cook Strait.

Since then raw sewage has been spewing from a five-metre pipe directly into the southern coastline.

Little said he wad already scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Monday before the failure of the sewage plant and would now discuss the issue with the plant during that meeting.

Little said one of the questions in the days ahead would be about setting up an appropriate investigation or inquiry into what happened.

“We can’t let this happen again,” he said. “We can’t let such a critical plant for a modern city fail in the way that this has and cause the environmental degradation that it has.

“It’s important we get the facts and it’s important we understand what we need to do to prevent it from happening again.”

Little said he had also enquired into how to ensure sample results published were more current.

“We’ve got to get that sorted out. People are expecting daily updates on the quality of the water, so we’ve got to get that right.”

Only three of the samples from Wednesday – the day the plant equipment failed – are above the threshold for safe swimming, but Wellington Water cautions that the samples do not reflect the current conditions and people still needs to follow public health advice and stay out of the water.

“Moa Point is continuing to discharge untreated wastewater,” it said. “Untreated wastewater poses a high risk to public health.”

The samples cover 18 sampling sites, from Ōwhiro Bay to Mahanga Bay. They were collected by Eurofins, an independent accredited laboratory, between 4-7pm on Wednesday, 4 February.

Wellington Water said the results from Hue Te Taka Peninsula, which was very close to the outfall, were many times over the safe limit.

“We are not able to draw any conclusions about the level of contamination or environmental impacts of the discharge from one set of samples. We will be conducting daily sampling and reviewing the results over several days to inform our response.”

Wellington Water said it would continue to sample around the eastern bays – Scorching Bay and Mahanga Bay – to confirm there was no indication of the discharge impacting the inner harbour.

“For clarity, while there were elevated levels detected in Wednesday 4th samples from Mahanga Bay and Ōwhiro Bay, these are considered to be caused by the rainfall earlier in the week, not the discharge from Moa Point,” it said. “These results may change.”

Wellington Water said discolouration in the inner harbour – Kilbirnie to Wellington CBD, around to Petone and Eastbourne – this week was very typical of rain and stormwater runoff being discharged by the Hutt River.

Wellington Water said reporting the results of water samples was delayed, because the bacteria needed 24 hours to grow in laboratory conditions.

“The results then need to be finalised to provide the most accurate data.”

It said sampling results could also be influenced by factors including wind, tide and rainfall.

Screened wastewater

In an discharge notice on Friday morning, Wellington Water said screened wastewater was now discharging to the long outfall pipe again.

Late on Thursday evening staff were able to get the long outfall pipe partially operating and the screens at the treatment plant working, Wellington Water said.

The screens remove items like sanitary pads and wet wipes from the wastewater, before it is discharged.

Wellington Water board chair Nick Leggett said currently they were only able to pump 900 litres per second of wastewater through the long outfall pipe.

“Which is most of the wastewater during an average day, but during peak flows throughout the day we will need to use the short outfall pipe,” he said.

Wellington Water said discharging screened wastewater out to sea via the 1.8km long outfall pipe allowed for greater dilution of the wastewater in the Cook Strait, reducing the amount of untreated wastewater flowing around the coastline, but the risk to public health still remained.

“For this reason, our advice to the public remains the same: we strongly advise that people avoid the coastal area along the south of Wellington until further notice. Do not enter the water or collect kaimoana from this area. Do not walk your dog along the beach,” said Leggett.

Leggett said while the situation remained serious, it was good to see progress.

“The team are working carefully throughout the weekend to increase the volume of flow through the long outfall pipe as much as possible, to reduce the use of the short outfall pipe,” said Leggett.

“However, the situation remains complex and at this stage we are unable to provide a timeframe of when this may be.”

Material being drained from longfall pipe, diver inspections taking place

Wellington Water said on Friday work was also being done to drain the clarifier tanks.

“There is some biological material that settles in the clarifier tanks that cannot be trucked, and the plan is to drain this via the long outfall pipe, where it is diluted.”

It said it was important to remove this material as soon as possible before it has a chance to become anaerobic and septic.

“This would cause an odour problem and pose a significant health and safety risk to workers onsite.”

However it cautioned that while the material was being drained people could see an increase of murky water in the area 1.8km out to sea.

Wellington Water said divers were also inspecting diffusers at the end of the outfall pipe on Friday.

“Shoreline inspections and clean-up of debris on the coastline around the short outfall continue three times daily, with a focus on completing these at low tide.”

A rāhui remains in place and covers anything the water touches/can touch with the high or low tides. While it is in effect, no public activities should be undertaken on or around the beaches on the southern coastline.

Mayor Andrew Little previously described the event a “catastrophic failure”, and said there must be an independent inquiry into what happened.

There were also concerns the leak could contaminate a nearby marine reserve and put several species at risk.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A group representing the mining sector insists the decision declining plans to mine the Taranaki seabed is not final.

While the fast-track approvals panel turned down Trans-Tasman Resources’ (TTR) bid to mine 50 million tonnes a year, for 30 years, in the South Taranaki Bight, Minerals Council chief executive Josie Vidal said that was only the draft decision.

“We have to trust the process,” she told RNZ. “We have to hope that facts, evidence and science prevail.”

Resource Management Act Reform Minister Chris Bishop said the final decision was due on 18 March.

Vidal said it was embarrassing that the decision had come out while New Zealand officials had been sent to Washington to discuss how the country could be part of a global supply chain of critical minerals.

Trans-Tasman Resources said it had identified a world-class vanadium resource that could contribute a billion dollars annually to the New Zealand economy.

“Vanadium is a very sought-after critical mineral around the world,” Vidal said. “If we want to be part of a global supply chain and we have critical minerals, we should be mining them.”

Vidal said the government understood it had a role to play and that the mining plan would be good for the economy.

It would also create more jobs, Vidal added, at a time when the unemployment rate was at the highest in a decade.

“We have to hope that people believe it, and not get sidetracked by thoughts, feelings and emotions, rather than actual science.”

The panel found there would be a credible risk of harm to Māui dolphins, kororā and fairy prion, but Vidal said mining companies were well used to mitigating any kind of harm.

“There’s a lot of the word ‘may’ and equally with ‘may’, there’s ‘may not’.

“I think they need to be clear what they’re basing the ‘may’ on, because there’s been evidence produced that there won’t be harm to animals.”

The panel also found there was uncertainty as to the scale and extent of the sediment plume and underwater noise generated from the project.

It said the adverse impacts of the plan were out of proportion with its regional and national benefits.

TTR executive chairman Alan Eggers said he found it difficult to accept the panel intended to decline the project’s environmental approvals with concerns on almost every aspect.

“All the concerns raised by the expert panel were fully addressed in our application, which was supported by leading expert evidence and comprehensive responses to issues raised during the hearings process.”

Eggers said it was hard to reconcile why the panel did not accept the evidence the company provided.

TTR now had until 19 February to comment on the decision.

The company would consider its options on what next steps it might take before the application decision was finalised, Eggers said.

Despite the draft decision, Vidal remained optimistic about the future of mining in New Zealand.

“New Zealand is really becoming a country where ‘can’t’ is the default setting. It’s very frustrating to always be told you can’t do something.

“I think it’s no wonder that people are leaving in droves for more optimistic land. It sort of feels like our long white cloud is a big cloud of negativity and doom.”

Green Party, Te Pāti Māori ‘ecstatic’

Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson told RNZ the decision to decline the mining plan was a win for the environment and the community.

“We’re absolutely delighted to see the proposal not backed,” she said.

Davidson said TTR would put profit before people and the environment, if it tried to appeal it.

“How silly would they look – the message is already very clear. This is destructive, overrides local community voices and Te Tiriti, and it’s harmful and dangerous to our environment, which people actually care about.

“They have no support.”

Davidson said, if the government relied on seabed mining as a way to grow the economy, it was “at a dead end”.

“It’s short-sighted, it’s stupid and it will not work.”

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer told RNZ that the decision was also a win for those who had spent years opposing the plan.

Led by Ngāti Ruanui iwi, the seabed mining proposal faced opposition across Taranaki and Te Tai Hauāuru, she said.

Hundreds of people marched through the town of Pātea to protest in October 2024, after it was revealed that the project was subject to fast-track legislation.

“This has been a really long battle,” she said. “We are all ecstatic, having the best Waitangi Day ever.”

Ngarewa-Packer said the project should never have made the list in the first place.

“It should actually be banned, as something that New Zealand should never, ever be supporting,” she said.

“Our moana is not for sale.”

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