Source: Radio New Zealand
Untreated water leaked onto the capital’s south coast beaches due to the Moa Point Treatment Plant flooding. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Wellington Water has stopped pumping raw sewage through a five metre pipe directly into the sea at Tarakena Bay.
The 1.8 kilometre long pipe into Cook Strait was overwhelmed during recent heavy rain, so the water company had to revert to the short pipe – but that has now not been used for 24 hours.
Wellington Water said it was trying to increase the volume of sewage that can be pumped to the long pipe, because after the plant’s massive failure two weeks ago, it can only cope in dry weather.
“We are working this week to construct a much larger air vent on the outfall pipe to help improve the flow of water through the pipe,” it said.
“We are continuing to look for other options to increase the flow through the long outfall pipe, remembering that screening remains the only treatment function in operation.”
The plant can pump between 1300 to 1500 litres per second through the long pipe, which Wellington Water said was “more than enough” for average dry weather flows (700-900 litres per second).
Anything above those limits had to be diverted to the short pipe, it said.
Wellington Water was also dealing with a bad smell at the plant.
“Odour monitors are being installed to measure the impact at sites surrounding the plant,” it said.
“We have one unit available and will confirm when this is in place.”
Water sampling did not take place on Monday due to the bad weather, so there were no results to report on Wednesday.
Tuesday’s results will be available on Thursday.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
