Source: Radio New Zealand
Untreated waste water is leaking onto the capital’s south coast beaches due to the Moa Point Treatment Plant flooding. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Some businesses along the Welington’s South Coast say the major sewage spill is a “kick in the teeth” and they are already losing business.
An equipment failure at the Moa Point wastewater treatment plant on Wednesday flooded the site and is sending raw sewage spewing directly into the ocean at Tarakena Bay – rather than through a longer pipe, nearly 2 kilometres into Cook Strait.
Wellington Water hopes the long pipe would be fixed by the end of the weekend, but said it would likely be months before the plant was fully repaired.
A graphic from Wellington Water shows the beaches that are affected. A rāhui has been placed on the area. Wellington Water
People are being urged not to enter the water, collect seafood, or walk their dogs on the beach, and a rāhui is in place from Ōwhiro Bay to Breaker Bay.
Some local businesses already seeing the impact
Jonathan Dunbar, who works at the Onepu Coffee & Icecream Shack, said he usually sees people surfing on his walk to work, but on Thursday he said it was “a ghost town”, and they had also noticed a “substantial drop in business.”
He expected business on Waitangi Day to be a bit dull.
“I would anticipate that we’ll probably be opening later and closing early because everyone’s going to be at Oriental Parade or Petone.
Jonathan Dunbar. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
“Since yesterday we’ve definitely noticed a decrease in customers,” said manager of the Botanist cafe and restaurant, Kais.
With good weather forecast, he hoped over the long weekend that people still came to the area for a walk
Cass, a barista at Centennial Coffee House, said they hadn’t noticed a reduction in customers but were concerned what foot traffic would be like over the long weekend.
“I think if people are staying away from the beach, then yeah, we’ll definitely lose customers.”
She said several customers she’d spoken to had been “appalled” by the situation.
Vicky Shen from Seaview Takeaways said she hadn’t noticed a difference in customer levels and hoped it would stay that way over the next few days.
Vicky Shen. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Josh Bird, manager at Dive Shop Ocean Hunter, said Moa Point was a a popular area for people to dive and gather seafood or shellfish.
He said people did appear to be steering clear of Moa Point and they were also telling customer to go other places.
“It’s just another kick in the teeth for us,” he said
“We’ve been smashed by bad weather and all that sort of stuff,” he said. “So we just haven’t had any opportunities to really get out.”
He said they’d been hoping the back half of summer would be good, because their business had been affected by the poor conditions.
“So we’ve already been quiet beforehand and now we’re finally starting to get some [good] weather and it’s just another factor as well on top of it, preventing people from getting out in the water and feeding their families.”
Where Wellington was lucky, he said, was in that they had quite a bit of coastline still that wasn’t affected.
RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Divers deployed to investigate pipe
Wellington Water said it was deploying divers over the weekend to investigate the condition of a major pipe at the plant that got blocked up
The Moa Point 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.
Raw sewage is spewing from a five metre pipe directly into the southern coastline, closing beaches to the public.
In an update to media, Wellington Water said cameras will be sent down the beginning of the long outfall pipe, and divers will check the end of it underwater.
Teams were working “as quickly as possible” to divert as much sewage from the short outfall to the long outfall pipe, the update said, as well to put screening in pace to remove items like sanitary pads from the wastewater being discharged.
Wellingtonians could expect to see discolouration around the coastline for about a week as teams emptied clarifiers and primary settling tanks to reduce odour.
The main street of Island Bay. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
They can also expect an increase in smell due to the plant being offline and work taking place on site.
“We will do all that we can to mitigate the impacts of odour,” Wellington Water said.
Wellington Water said the rāhui is still in place and covers anything the water 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.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
