Canterbury mussel farmer warns sewage plan could devastate aquaculture

A Canterbury mussel farmer has warned that a plan to discharge partially treated sewage into the ocean could devastate the local aquaculture industry.

It comes after Fisheries Minister Shane Jones said marine farmers shouldn’t bear the burden of a long-standing sewage problem.

Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger raised the idea last week in a bid to lessen the stench that stems from the Christchurch Wastewater Treatment Plant in Bromley, long a problem for nearby eastern suburbs.

The sewage would be partially treated and have chlorine added before being pumped out through an existing outfall pipe into Pegasus Bay.

Ben Winters, director of Aroma New Zealand and Aquaculture, said if the plan went ahead, it could wipe out the local aquaculture industry in Banks Peninsula.

“We’ve got farms from Port Levy, the first one, and then going right through to Pigeon Bay and Squally Bay, so right along the coastline there,” he told the Herald today.

“With Pegasus just right there at the doorstep, pumping sewage out, even if it’s partially filtered, it does not give us great confidence at all.

“Because basically sewage and shellfish mixed together, you then get norovirus, and then you can’t harvest.”

Winter said the proposal was a short-term decision with long-term impacts.

“It’s the future generations, it’s the environmental impact, New Zealand’s clean green image. Where’s that going?” he said.

“Just for a short term, let’s turn the pipes on, let’s keep a few residents happy, so we can get rid of the smell. It’s a major concern to us.”

Winters said the company had invested heavily in the aquaculture sector in the last 10 years.

“We’ve probably spent $50 million in the last six to 10 years,” he said.

“That’s with buying, obviously, mussel farms, investing in mussel harvesters.

“We employ 65 staff, so those jobs could be put at risk as well.”

Fisheries Minister Shane Jones backed marine farmers and claimed they “shouldn’t bear the brunt of Christchurch’s poo problems“.

“The key point needs to be made. If you’re going to wilfully destroy marine-based businesses, then get your chequebook out,” Jones told NZME today.

Jones said he understood compromises sometimes had to be made, but refused to let the proposed idea be carried out “under a bureaucratic blanket”.

“It’s going to be done in the open,” he said.

“There’s no way that I’m going to keep quiet if people think it’s a good idea, without compensation, to destroy these businesses which are at the forefront of New Zealand’s very clean and admirable name in relation to reliable food for the rest of the world.”

Last year, Mahurangi oyster farmers were prevented from harvesting for nearly a month after more than 1000cu m of sewage overflowed from a Watercare pump station in late October, contaminating thousands of oysters in the Mahurangi River.

Watercare agreed to give $1 million in compensation to 10 affected farmers, who split it between them.

The 10 marine farms were in a more than seven-year battle with Watercare to stop sewage overflowing into the harbour north of Auckland, which contaminates their oyster crops with norovirus.