Wellington Water fined $67,500 for illegal discharge into sea near Titahi Bay
Friday, 13 September 2019
A 'cascade of errors' has led to Wellington Water (WW) being fined $67,500 for an illegal discharge from the Porirua Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Multiple warning signs were ignored before the incident, which saw about 5000 cubic metres of waste water and solids pour into the sea near Titahi Bay in October 2018.
The Greater Wellington Regional Council, which owns WW, along with the Hutt Valley, Wellington and Porirua councils prosecuted WW for the discharge.
On Friday, Environment Court Judge Brian Dwyer said the discharge was a serious event, resulting from a 'multiplicity of failings'.
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'I would describes the level of carelessness as very high indeed.'
WW pleaded guilty and said it had made significant changes to the management of the plant, since the incident.
The summary of facts pointed to a chain of errors that led to a 200 metre brown plume spilling in to the water near a popular beach.
They included a warning text to staff being ignored, with staff saying they had not received it, or simply did not respond.
On the day of the discharge, October 6 last year, sensor activations were wrongly blamed on an IT fault.
Public Health was not told about the discharge until two days after the event.
Prosecutor Andrew Britton said there had been an 'element of good fortune' that it did not result in people getting sick.
He accepted WW had behaved appropriately once it became aware of the discharge and asked for a fine of $100,000.
Legal counsel Ezekiel Hudspith acknowledged wrong decisions had been made and that it was 'not a good look' for his client.
WW accepted responsibility for its employees and that its employees had been careless, he saId.
The charge of allowing contaminates in to the sea carried a maximum penalty of $600,000.
Judge Dwyer said he hoped the fine of $67,500 would send a message that what had happened was not acceptable. 'It has significant bite to be more than a slap on the wrist.'
Speaking after the sentencing, chief executive Colin Crampton said everyone involved with WW had been disappointed by what happened.
People trusted that waste water collected from houses and business would be clean before it was put in the ocean, Crampton said.
'That trust has been dented and we have to set about rebuilding it.'
WW did a thorough review of its processes and he was confident there had been significant improvements in the way the plant operated.
Multinational wastewater company Veolia had now taken over running the plant, he said.
The Porirua and Wellington City councils, which owned the plant, had invested $6m into an upgrade that should enure there was no repeat of the October incident.
WW had apologised to the community, including local Māori, and he wanted to work with residents to help them understand how the plant workēd and to avoid problems.
Last month, 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.