Source: Radio New Zealand
Wellington’s Moa Point wastewater treatment plant has been shut down and staff evacuated from the site, after an equipment failure flooded multiple floors. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
An average of around 70 million litres of untreated wastewater has been pouring into the capital’s South Coast since Wednesday morning.
Wellington’s mayor Andrew Little told Morning Report there must be an independent inquiry into what happened, which he’s labelled a “catastrophic failure” and an “environmental disaster”.
“This is a sewage plant processing the sewage for a big city, and it has completely failed, it just completely stopped,” he said.
“Plants like this should not suffer the kind of catastrophic failure that we’ve seen.”
The volume of water and sewage were within safe working limits, he said.
“There seems to have been a blockage or some other factor that has led to the failure of the system.”
Little said residents’ anger and frustration were justified.
Andrew Little RNZ / Mark Papalii
“I share it with them. This is my neighbourhood, this is where I take my dog for a walk, and along that coastline is where I spend my time, that’s where I go kayaking and swimming,” he said.
“It’s a priority for me personally to get to the bottom of what happened, to ensure that every resource available is going into restoring the plant, and then doing the remedial work on getting the environment cleaned up as well.”
Authorities were doing all they could to ensure people knew the water and beaches were unsafe for swimming, walking dogs and collecting seafood, he said.
But he acknowledged some eager beachgoers might ignore that advice.
“We can’t physically stop people entering the water if that’s what they wish to do, but as long as they are aware of the risk, then it’s our job to make sure they get the right information to assess that.”
Meanwhile, some locals have described a Wellington sewage plant shutdown as gross, sad and unacceptable.
An average of around 70 million litres of untreated wastewater had been pouring into the capital’s South Coast since Wednesday morning.
The Moa Point plant’s lower floors had been completely flooded when sewage backed up in the 1.8km outfall pipe, which normally sent treated wastewater into the Cook Strait.
Wellington Water chief executive Pat Dougherty said it was critical the company understood why the pipe failed.
RNZ went out to Wellington’s South Coast on Wednesday evening.
Lyall Bay on a bright summer evening would normally have been humming with surfers out in the waves and locals on their post-work walks.
But instead, the area was deserted – the only people there were Wellington Water staff members in large fluro coats warning people about the sewage.
RNZ spoke to locals from the safety of concrete paths and car parks.
Angus was planning to go down to the water for a surf, but decided against it after looking at the water.
“I didn’t want to go there because it looked like I don’t know… toilet paper or jellyfish, so I was like I don’t really want to go in on either of those.”
Stacey said she came down to the beach to enjoy the view and that the plant breakdown was “pretty shocking” and “pretty gross”.
She held concerns about how Wellington Water managed the pipes and plants.
“Where I live Ngaio there’s water out quite a lot, so this is just sort of on top of ongoing issues that they seem to have with the infrastructure.”
Kristina said the news was horrible.
“Really unacceptable, this is a beach where you might see a lot of surfers and they are all in the water all year around,” she said.
“I think it is pretty toxic.”
Leila Martley told RNZ it was a “hugely sad” situation.
“I really feel for Wellington Water.”
She also felt for Tiaki Wai – the new organisation set to take over Wellington, the Hutt Valley and Porirua’s water operations.
The wastewater plant. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
“It is just an awful thing to set off with.”
Further to the east of the coast at Tarakena Bay Alishba said she was about to go swimming but was warned by a local not to get in the water.
“It is pretty gross; I don’t know how that would happen though.”
A Rahui was in place throughout the South Coast, with people told not to gather food and to keep themselves and their dogs out of the water.
Wellington Water said it was taking water samples from a wide area and was expected to provide an update later on Thursday.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand