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
Surfers and surf lifesavers are devastated Wellington’s south coast is off-limits while sewage spews into the sea, worrying it’s a return to a time when there were “turds in the waves”.
An equipment failure at the Moa Point wastewater treatment plant has flooded the site, and sewage is flowing into the coastline, with no timeline on a fix.
Wellington mayor Andrew Little labelled it a “catastrophic failure” and an “environmental disaster”.
Wellington Water is focusing on cleaning up the flooding so it can safely restore power and allow sewage – still untreated – to be pumped through the long outfall pipe nearly 2km into Cook Strait, rather than into Tarakena Bay close to shore.
People have been told not to swim in the water, RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
That could take days.
In the meantime, people are being urged not to enter the water, collect seafood, or walk their dogs on the beach, and a rāhui is in place.
Jamie McCaskill from Wellington Boardriders told Morning Report he was gutted and devastated.
“We’ve got a few events coming up, this is a bad time for us … it’s just really not a good time, especially at this time of year.”
The worst part was not knowing when the water would be safe, McCaskill said. He wanted clear communication from Wellington Water about that.
McCaskill worried it would be a return to decades prior, before the long outfall pipe was built.
“I’ve been talking to a few of the legend surfers, and kind of before 1989 there was just … raw sewage, smells on the rocks, on the wall, surfing in barrels with turds in the waves,” he said.
“There were sicknesses, ear infections, skin infections, gastro, so we’re just trying to avoid that, that’s for sure.”
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
There were no other places nearby to surf, he said.
“We could go to Wainuiomata or over to the Wairarapa but it’s just such a long way, it’s a bit of a bummer that we just can’t go locally.”
‘It’s really concerning’
Lyall Bay Surf Lifesaving Club chairperson Matt Flannery said his members were as disappointed as the rest of the community.
“We can’t use what is a beautiful part of the city,” he said.
“It’s really concerning.”
The club has had to reschedule this weekend’s planned competitions, and it has disrupted members’ training for national competitions.
“We’re at the final part of the season where we’ve got very regular use on the beach, with probably 70 or 80 club members in the water on a daily basis, so that’s a fairly big impact,” Flannery said.
“It’s at a time of the year that we’re training for national championships four weeks out, and obviously the uncertainty about when the beach will reopen is of a major concern for us.”
That uncertainty made their rejigged training plans “a bit of a guessing game”, Flannery said.
Lifeguards would not be patrolling the beach this weekend, and a red flag would fly at the club to show the beach was unsafe.
The mayor told Morning Report he shared residents’ anger and frustration.
“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,” Andrew Little said.
Wellington Water is taking water samples from a wide area and 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
