The Hastings District Council has been found to have breached its consent for Lowes Lake since 2017. Photo / Paul Taylor.
The Hastings District Council has been found to have breached its consent for Lowes Lake since 2017. Photo / Paul Taylor.
Hasting District Council breached a 2017 consent by failing to test a lake for E. coli that was subsequently identified as a potential risk to the city's aquifer.
Since consent was granted for Lowes Lake in 2017, the Hastings District Council has been found to be non-compliant with it inthree ways.
Hawke's Bay Today can reveal that in 2017/18 E. coli levels were "not monitored" when stormwater into Lowes Lake was recorded - breaching condition seven of the Hawke's Bay Regional Council's consent requirements.
Furthermore, the Hawke's Bay Regional Council found HDC had breached condition six by not testing the water in the lake four times in the 2017/18 monitoring year (1 Nov 17 to 30 June 18), and again in 2018/19 (1 July 18 to 30 June 19).
Despite the breaches, a preliminary report has now indicated there is likely to be a "negligible risk" to the municipal drinking water bores in Frimley.
HDC's risk group manager asset management Craig Thew said this analysis was based on a "highly conservative scenario".
HBRC Consents Manager Malcolm Miller said HDC's lack of compliance was rated as "low risk".
Lowes Lake from above. Photo / Paul Taylor
The conditions of Lake Lowe (Lowes Pit) at 15 Hazlewood St were thrust into the spotlight a week ago when Hastings District Councillor and mayoral candidate Damon Harvey raised his concerns.
In June 2018, a report to the Works and Services Committee identified it as a "potential risk to the Heretaunga Plains aquifer".
Since then details of the former shingle pit's checkered past has come to light, including its potential use as a dumping zone for animal carcasses.
Harvey said: "This is utmost complacency and it seems that little has been learned from the crisis in Havelock North".
Damon Harvey in Lowes Lake last week, testing the water. Photo / Supplied
Labelling it as a "negligible risk" is "rubbish", Harvey says.
"If we have a major weather we could have another Havelock North crisis event on our hands."
Harvey, who jumped the fence last Sunday and took a water sample from the lake that detected e.coli says it is "unacceptable that council is continuing to put people's lives at risk".
His sample found E. coli.
"The council comes down hard on any business or resident that breaches a consent but it seems to be okay if they breach. It smacks of double standards."
Hastings' drinking water at the bores is sourced from the Heretaunga aquifer.
The aquifer is fed by millions of litres of water from the Ngaruroro River.
HDC three waters manager Brett Chapman says any water entering the aquifer from Lowes Pit is "insignificant in its contribution to this massive water source".
"In addition, it can take six to nine months for this water to get to the Frimley bores and any E. coli would die off in that time.
"The water travels from the ground through the filtering layers to the aquifer, and in the case of Lowes Pit, it is protected further by the hard clay base of the pit before it contributes to the overall water mass of the aquifer, which the bores draw our drinking water from," Chapman said.
"At the bores chlorination treatment is in place, which in the unlikely event any E. coli reached the bore, is fully effective at killing these bugs."
Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said the negligible risk was backed by independent expert assessment.
"Council is not prepared to accept any risk, hence our focus on it over the past months.
"The water is safe. Any suggestion otherwise is mischievous."
Hawke's Bay District Health Board Medical Officer of Health Dr Nick Jones said that in addition to the barrier provided by depth and distance between Lowes Pit and the closest Hastings bore, "there is also the added protection of chlorine in place".
"Regardless of the issues raised by Lowes Pit, the DHB remains concerned about the impact of stormwater discharges on groundwater quality generally."
He said the situation cannot be compared to the Havelock North gastro crisis.
"The aquifer providing source water in the Havelock case was at considerably higher risk."
HBRC and HDC chief executives and senior staff met on Thursday over the lake.
