$6m wastewater plant in breach of consent

Hawke's Bay Regional Council resource-use manager Wayne Wright

The Central Hawke's Bay District Council is failing to clean up its wastewater plant which now breaches resource consent and discharges dangerous levels of bacteria into rivers.

Hawke's Bay Regional Council resource-use manager Wayne Wright said the results were in and the facility had shown no improvement after testing was conducted on December 18 last year. "This means CHB District Council is now non-compliant with its resource consent."

Last month Hawke's Bay Today revealed a HBRC report which showed "serious concerns" with the redeveloped $6 million wastewater plant.

The study found, despite the recent upgrade, that harmful bacteria and wastewater were being released into the Tukituki River at unacceptable levels. HBRC said "urgent action" was required after raising concerns the nutrient Amm.N and SRP and E.Coli bacterium had now exceeded the limits.

Resource consents regulating the discharge of wastewater from the plants were changed on October 1, 2014, and required a significantly higher standard of wastewater.

Mr Wright said HBRC was now working with CHBDC to rectify the problem and to provide a timeframe for compliance.

Changes and improvements to the wastewater treatment process would include the installation of new equipment as part of the solution being found, he said.

"In any circumstances where any party is in breach of a resource consent, HBRC has a wide range of enforcement options at its disposal." Penalties ranged from education to prosecution.

"The regional council will treat this breach in the same manner it would any other breach by any other party, there is an established process in place for the council to make such decisions and it has started that process," Mr Wright said.

CHBDC chief executive John Freeman said the council would have a meeting today to discuss potential solutions to the wastewater problems.

Prior to the October 1 change, the CHBDC decided to construct floating wetlands to meet the new treatment standards. The wetlands were constructed in 2013 at Waipawa in July and in Waipukurau in September.

In a CHBDC report last year, the system's problems were outlined and after starting in June 2013, it was found that the five filters sent to New Zealand from Europe had a problem with the sand screws where the sand was washed.