Matapihi residents want answers after raw sewage leak

Tui Rolleston, principal of Te Kura o Matapihi, after the Southern Pipeline leak in Matapihi. Photo / Samantha Motion

Just last month, Tauranga City Council was celebrating the end of the biggest infrastructure project it had ever completed: The $107 million Southern Pipeline. Nowhere was the project, which took 15 years to finish, more controversial than in Matapihi. Some people on the peninsula fought plans for the pipe to cross their land for years, but in the end - after a big push by the council to rebuild relationships and trust - the project received resource consent with nary an opposition submission. Now, a sewage leak has put that trust in jeopardy again. Samantha Motion reports.

Answers.

That's what many in Matapihi want from the Tauranga City Council after a failed valve saw raw sewage spew from the $107 million Southern Pipeline on to a road berm near a school today.The council has apologised to the community, cleaned up what it says was a relatively small amount of spilled sewage and promised to work hard to prevent any more issues.

The incident has, however, reignited old grievances in Matapihi over the controversial wastewater pipeline, which was the subject of protests in 2016. It became operational in February after 15 years of work.

The leak was first reported about 8pm last night,with contractors working through the night to contain it.

Te Kura o Matapihi principal Tui Rolleston said her daughter arrived home from netball last night and said there was a bad smell and wet ground near the kura (school).

"She said 'oh my god it stinks by the school'."

Rolleston said she called the council to alert them.

By the time she arrived for work the next morning, the leak had been contained to the side of the road opposite the school and the road was cleaned up.

Contractors were still working at the scene.

The berm opposite Te Kura o Matapihi was cordoned off. Photo / Samantha Motion

Rolleston said the council assured her there was no health or safety risk to the students, but she still wanted to know what the council would do to make sure it did not happen again.

That was also the answer sought by two kaitiaki for the region - Chris Stokes of Ngāti Kuku hapu and Hayden Henry of Ngāi Tukairangi hapu.

Both said it was the kind of incident people had feared when they fought the pipeline plan.

Stokes said a leak near the school was the "worst-case scenario".

In 2016, protesters picket across a paper road beside 177 Matapihi Rd to prevent Tauranga City Council laying the Southern Pipeline from Matapihi Rd to SH29. Photo / File

Tio Faulkner - a Matapihi resident and key figure in the 2016 protests against the pipeline - said the leak was an "engineering disaster".

"After so many assurances by the council that it had been tested, that it was not going to leak, it has a leak after less than a year."

He too wanted answers.

Wally Potts, the council's team leader of drainage services, said about half a cubic metre of raw sewage leaked out, requiring an area of about 20m by 3m to be disinfected.

The spill was contained to the berm and did not reach school or private property, he said.

Contractors at the site of a leak in the city's Southern Pipeline. Photo / Samantha Motion

While the leak was "minor" by volume, he said the council "fully appreciates this is a significant issue to the community".

He said the cause of the leak was a failed air release valve.

"We have fixed the valve and we're investigating what caused it to fail.

"We are also checking the other valves, this will continue to be part of our regular, monthly maintenance routine."

Potts said the council had worked with the Matapihi community from the start of the project and continued to be in regular communication.

"We have apologised to the community for what's happened, and will continue to work hard to prevent any future issues."

The Southern Pipeline - in red - involved the construction of around 10km of wastewater pipes and two new pump stations. Graphic / Supplied

'Foul odour' keeps kids off fields

For Te Kura o Matapihi, the leak was not the first issue with the Southern Pipeline since it became operational.

An air vent opposite the school regularly expelled a "foul odour", principal Tui Rolleston said.

Teachers with classrooms on that side of the school had complained and the school kept students off the roadside fields when the smell was especially bad.

She said she could not understand why the vent was placed there, near a school, rather than at another point in the pipeline. The issue had been reported to the council, she said.

Te Kura o Matapihi. Photo / File

Garry Holloway, a Matapihi resident who said he acted as a liaison between the community and the council regarding the pipeline, said the odour issues had been a problem up until about a month ago.

That was when the council installed a new odour filter on the vent across from the school.

"That fixed it."

Wally Potts, the council's team leader of drainage services, said the odour filter was not related to the leak.

Asked why the vent was located opposite the school, he said: "These types of valves are positioned where the ground is higher, so it's dependent on natural curvature of the land."

The school, which is on a hill, was connected to the town wastewater supply as part of the Southern Pipeline project.