Residents reject assurances sewage plant working fine after October sludge incident

Friday, 16 August 2019

As the sewage smell rolled uninvited, but politely unremarked, into her daughter's wedding, Margaret Dietrich felt a little embarrassed.

She's one of a group of Porirua residents rejecting an apology and assurances a Titahi Bay sewage plant is running more smoothly since illegally discharging 1000 cubic metres of sludge outside their homes.

They say little has changed at the popular swimming spot since last October - and subsequent incidents have included a revolting sewage stench at a beachfront wedding, and a thick brown discharge in the April school holidays.

Wellington Water, however, says nothing like the incident has happened since: the plant is performing well - and will only get better with $6 million budgeted for improvements.

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In September Wellington Water faces sentencing over an illegal discharge in October 2018 that breached its consent conditions at the Porirua Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Multiple alarms were ignored before the incident, which saw about 1000 cubic meters of 'activated sludge' pour into the small bay. 

Speaking previously to Stuff, acting Wellington Water chief executive Tonia Haskell said the company was deeply sorry for the incident. She said the plant had improved work procedures, alarm systems, and had a new multinational wastewater company Veolia in charge since July.

But Titahi Bay resident Dietrich said there had been ongoing problems with smell and pollution after the October incident.

That included a rolling stench that arrived, with a 'woof', during her daughter's wedding at her beachfront home on December 30. Nobody mentioned the smell, but she felt a bit embarrassed she said.

Resident Marie Wright said during the April holidays she personally saw an irregular discharge 'gushing' from the outflow pipe. 'It was brown and frothy when it came out.'

Neighbour Michelle Laurenson said there needed to be proper consultation with the residents before any consent application. She said the plant was not currently working properly.

'We've got so much s… going in there, it's not big enough to treat it all.' She said an increase in waste from Wellington's northern suburbs was overwhelming the plant.

Fellow resident Tracey Waters said the group wanted better consultation and sewage treatment from the plant.

'All they want to do is put a longer outfall [pipe] out. Out of sight, out of mind. It's like we're a Third World country.'

A Wellington Water spokesman said the plant had exceeded a water quality limit on its consent in January this year. However, he said the incident was 'minor' with no detected increase in faecal bacteria at the beach. Wellington Water also did not collect enough water samples, as per its consent conditions, in June.

He said there had been no repeat of the October incident, which took place in dry weather.

There had however been wet weather 'bypass' incidents, when an influx of mainly rainwater entered wastewater pipes and exceeded the capacity of the plant to fully treat it.

In those cases partially treated water entered the sea. 'Any diluted wastewater that exceeds the treatment plant capacity is screened to remove debris before being discharged.' 

He said there was no record of a discharge event around the time of the wedding, and no complaints about odour.

There had been a wet weather bypass event in April but that happened before the school holidays, when all water quality measures were met, he said. There had been another wet weather bypass on June 1.

'We're developing plans to increase treatment plant capacity to remove bypasses, and only discharge fully treated water. Funding is in place to invest $6m in plant improvements over the next two years.'

Northern Wellington contributed about a third of the waste going into the plant, and they were confident the plant would cope with increases in the future, he said.

Greater Wellington Regional Council said the consent to discharge from the plant expired on July 6, 2020.

Normally new consent applications must be lodged six months before the expiry of the existing consent but 'given the volume and complexity of information' required for the application, Wellington Water was given till April 6 to apply.

Porirua City Council infrastructure general manager Mike Evans said Wellington Water had run a robust consultation programme to date including a community working group.

The plant had been upgraded as recently as 2015 and with the planned improvements would eliminate the wet weather 'bypass' events.

Meanwhile the residents have formed a group Our Bay, Our Say, which is holding a public meeting for residents at Titahi Bay School at 7.30pm on Monday.