Source: Radio New Zealand
Lyall Bay beach and the rest of Wellington’s south coast has been off limits since the Moa Point treatment plant failed on 4 February. RNZ / Krystal Gibbens
A preliminary report into the Moa Point wastewater treatment plant has been handed to Wellington City Council officers, but will not be made public while the Crown review is taking place, Wellington Water says.
Wellington Water said the report it commissioned was handed to staff on Tuesday night.
The plant suffered huge damage in a failure in February, and since then millions of litres of raw sewage have been pumped into Cook Strait.
The government announced a Crown Review Team would investigate the failure under the Local Government Act 2002, in the weeks following the incident.
A rāhui was also put in place on the stretch of southern coast from Ōwhiro Bay to Breaker Bay, and was lifted a few weeks later.
The majority of wastewater is being screened and discharged through the long outfall pipe, but excess volumes of unscreened wastewater are going into the sea through the short outfall pipe.
Wellington Water said Moa Point can only pump between 1300 and 1500 litres per second through the long outfall – more than enough for average dry weather flows.
It said a preliminary assessment has been completed, and specialists are working through further assessments following a detailed physical inspection of the plant.
Wellington Water said final assessments are needed to figure out the repair timeframe, and assured the community all parties involved are acutely aware of the need to deliver this as quickly as possible, without jeopardising the quality and accuracy of the recovery.
Initial equipment has also been ordered to keep the plant operating in an interim state.
Wellington Water said not everything will be ordered to get the plant operational again until final assessments have been completed and repair options have been agreed with the council.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
