Source: Radio New Zealand
RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Wellington Water has apologised to south coast residents after some complained of smells coming from its waste treatment plant late last night.
Crews at Moa Point wastewater treatment plant restarted its ventilation system to remove gases and smells from the facility yesterday, causing complaints from locals.
The plant had been forced to shut down in February a catastrophic failure in February, which has spewed tens of millions of litres of untreated sewage into the sea, and shut some south coast beaches for a period.
This was the first use of its fan since the flooding. Wellington Water had not anticipated smells to impact surrounding neighbourhoods.
Portable fans had previously been used to air the facility, with no noticeable odour for the wider community, Wellington Water said, and and the plant itself had been cleaned.
“We apologise for not notifying the community of this activity. We are committed to keeping the community informed of any operational activity that may have an impact on them, and we will do all we can to provide advance notice of any risk of increased odour,” it said.
The organisation warned locals that its odour-treatment systems were not “operational” and that there was an “ongoing risk of a low level of odour”.
“We are doing all we can to monitor odour onsite and mitigate the impact of odour on the community,” a spokesperson said.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
