Source: Radio New Zealand
Signs on Wellington’s South Coast about the wastewater spill. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The flooding of the Moa Point sewage treatment plant damaged its ”heart and nervous system”, Wellington Water says.
The catastrophic failure of the plant led to the significant, months-long discharge of untreated wastewater off Wellington’s South Coast.
In its latest update about the breakdown, Wellington Water said the February flooding of the plant damaged critical mechanical equipment, ”…including the odour treatment, sludge pumping and aeration equipment. Electrical damage included the PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), MCC (Motor Control Centre) systems, control instruments and cabling – essentially the heart and nervous system of the treatment plant.”
The water services provider said the scale of the damage was such that 14.5 kilometres of cables would need to be repaired or replaced.
Wellington Water said the damage assessment was done for insurance purposes and a final report would be made public ”as soon as appropriate”.
”The report may need to be reviewed as part of any potential insurance claim/s before being released to the public.”
The plant’s failure continues to see untreated sewage discharged into the sea, almost two months since its breakdown.
In an earlier report released by Wellington City Council, it outlined the failure may have been caused by air trapped in the pipes.
Wellington Water commissioned the engineering report on 5 February – the day after the failure – to understand how the plant could be operated during the recovery.
Experts from Stantec used software to develop a hydraulic model of the plant, and replicated the likely flow of water running through the plant when it failed.
While the report was not commissioned to identify the cause, it had revealed valuable information, Wellington Mayor Andrew Little’s office said at the time.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
