Prosecutions threatened over water discharge breaches

CURRENT: Friends of the Tukituki spokesman Simon Lusk says councils could face prosecution over their alleged failure to manage wastewater systems in CHB. PHOTO/FILE

The Central Hawke's Bay District Council could face private prosecution of its members over failures of its wastewater system.

The council is in breach of discharge consents which have been in place just three months.

The possibility of the prosecutions has been raised by Friends of the Tukituki spokesman and political campaigner Simon Lusk, who told Radio New Zealand if the Hawke's Bay Regional Council would not prosecute, then the group would look at prosecuting CHB councillors and Regional Council staff, Mr Lusk says, are "failing to uphold their statutory obligations".

CHB Mayor Peter Butler said "they" had threatened the council with prosecution before, and council chief executive John Freeman said he received a letter from the group last month. "My understanding is you can't prosecute against individuals on the council," Mr Freeman said. He said the two councils and the Friends of the Tukituki "all want the same outcome" - to ensure the river is free of any unwanted discharge. "Any prosecution would be a distraction and a waste of time and money which would be better spent ensuring it [the system] is up and running properly," Mr Freeman said. Regional council staff have decided against prosecuting the council despite six breaches of the discharge consents since they came into effect in October.

The district council is intent on resolving the issues as soon as possible, and is installing new clarifying systems to help ensure its Waipawa and Waipukurau wastewater plants, where $6 million was spent on floating wetlands installation, meet new treatment standards.

The wetlands were constructed in 2013 at the Waipawa plant off Pourerere, just east of the town, and which discharges via Bush Drain to the Waipawa River, a tributary to the Tukituki River, while the Waipukurau system discharges into the Tukituki from the town's oxidation pond. A regional council report in December revealed harmful bacteria and wastewater were being released from the redeveloped wastewater plant into the Tukituki River at unacceptable levels.

This week it said nothing had improved and the Central Hawke's Bay District Council was now in breach of its resource consent.

Mr Freeman said that initially it was thought problems were being caused by a block in the filters.

But it was discovered an additive used to aid phosphorous removal had been causing a "sticky material" known as floc, that glues sand grains together and causes blockages.

"We've tried several avenues to stop this from happening, and while they have reduced the blockages, they haven't completely eliminated the problem," he said.

A new system designed to catch the floc before it reaches the sand filters will be installed at Waipawa by May, because Waipawa had been the first to operate and therefore have the problem. If the results are positive the same will happen at Waipukurau. "We will definitely resolve all matters to ensure we meet our Resource Consent requirements," he said. "I'm confident we will be 100 per cent compliant once the new clarifiers are up and running." Mr Butler said: "We've appreciated the approach HBRC has taken in helping us as we work to resolve these issues. Our river systems are important to us and I want to assure people that we are doing everything we can to meet the new consent requirements as quickly as we can."