Oyster farmers north of Auckland fear their businesses won't survive. Photo / Supplied
The origin of an unexpected payment to North Island oyster farmers has been solved.
A payment of about $10,000 was deposited into the accounts of affected Mahurangi Harbour oyster farmers - the catch is they do not know what the money is for.
The 10 marine farms have been in a seven-year battle with Watercare to stop sewage overflowing into the harbour north of Auckland, which contaminates their oyster crops with norovirus.
The farmers have been unable to sell any locally grown oysters from the Mahurangi Harbour since Christmas, leaving them on the brink all year.
This week about 40 people that work across the oyster industry in the Mahurangi Harbour, worth nearly $10 million, were let go.
Tom Walters from Matakana Oysters said while the money was facilitated by Aquaculture New Zealand, it was unclear if the payment originated from them, Watercare or another party.
On Wednesday, Aquaculture confirmed the urgent financial assistance funding was provided by Watercare to Aquaculture NZ to distribute to the Mahurangi oyster farmers.
A spokesperson further added: “I would suggest that further comment on the rationale for the financial assistance is best directed to Watercare.”
On Tuesday, RNZ approached both Aquaculture and Watercare about the origins of the financial payment.
While the source of the payment had been cleared up, farmers were still not sure what this meant for any liability or future legal action the farmers could take up with Watercare.
Walters said he would rather not have accepted it because it was an admission of wrongdoing and the amount did not cover the financial damage the farmers were facing.
“It needs to be $200,000 each for something, just to get through the shit that we’ve gone through this year - and at times eight or nine, or whatever it is, or 10 oyster farmers, rather than $200,000 between us all. It’s an insult.”
Watercare had consistently said it would not be in a position to compensate the farmers financially, but did put forward $50,000 to support wellbeing initiatives.
On Wednesday, Watercare responded that they “really feel for the Mahurangi oyster farmers whose businesses have been impacted by wastewater overflows”.
Sinclair said they were working closely with Aquaculture New Zealand to look for meaningful ways that we could provide support.
“We have contributed $50,000 to support immediate wellbeing initiatives for impacted oyster farmers.
“We have also contributed a further $200,000 to Aquaculture New Zealand to support business recovery initiatives through grants for Mahurangi oyster farmers.”
“These contributions are distributed by Aquaculture New Zealand and can be used to fund wellbeing support, the translocation of oysters to other locations, the repair or replacement of sticks used for farming or activities to support spat to grow.
“We emailed the oyster farmers on July 25 to let them know we were working through the final details of an agreement to provide $200,000 for business support activities for the growers which would be distributed by Aquaculture NZ. The agreement was signed on August 1 and Aquaculture New Zealand planned to communicate the details of this support directly with the oyster farmers.”
Watercare said they were doing everything they could to put a stop to the overflows.
“We’re investing more than $450m in a transformational wastewater programme for Warkworth and the Snells/Algies beach communities,” Watercare chief executive Jamie Sinclair said.
He said the interim solution - the new pumps and larger pipeline installed over the heritage bridge in Elizabeth St - was now complete and operational.
“We will see a significant reduction in overflows when we have our new downstream infrastructure in service - the new Lucy Moore Pump Station, a five-kilometre transfer pipeline and the new Snells Beach Wastewater Treatment Plant. This is expected to be in late August.”
The treatment plant is expected to be fully commissioned, taking 100 percent of Warkworth’s flows in late September, Sinclair said.
“The ultimate solution is the growth-servicing pipeline. We’d originally expected to bring the full growth servicing pipeline into service in 2028, but we’ve revised the programme so that we can build the critical section first - from Hill St, along Elizabeth St to Queen St - and have this section in service by the end of next year. This will almost eliminate overflows in wet weather. This does add cost to the project - we’ll need to invest approximately an additional $2.5m to accelerate this section.”
- RNZ