Raglan Harbour could be contaminated with untreated effluent after power cuts

Power cuts in Raglan have caused an overflow of untreated effluent at several wastewater pump stations.

Power cuts in Raglan have caused an overflow of untreated effluent at several wastewater pump stations.

The news comes after bad weather caused 27 power outages yesterday, affecting traffic signals, 20 wastewater pump stations and over 17,500 Waikato homes.

In a statement this afternoon, Waikato District Council asked the public to consider delaying showers and limiting water to essential use only.

“Due to the fact that effluent may end up in the Raglan Harbour via stormwater channels, the public is being asked to avoid collecting shellfish in the harbour until further notice,” the council said.

According to the statement, pump stations at Marine Parade, Nihinihi Avenue, East St and Kaitoke St “have overflowed or are overflowing”.

“[This] has resulted in untreated effluent spilling to the surrounding environment at those locations.”

The council’s statement said generators and pump trucks were brought in last night but were “struggling to keep up with demands”.

“A team of technicians is managing the overflow and restoring the pump station functionality,” the statement said.

“There are no issues at the water supply treatment plant so drinking water is being supplied as normal.

“There are also no issues currently with the wastewater treatment plant itself.”

Hundreds of WEL Network customers, mostly in Te Akau and Raglan, had no power this morning following wild weather last night.

An update from the council issued at 4.05pm, said two generators would be set up at the wastewater treatment plant.

“We have been told that WEL Networks have increased generator power for overnight but we don’t have an indication on how long it will take to restore full power.

“So we have still increased the number of generators and sucker trucks to manage the 24 pump stations in Raglan.”

The update said there had been “small effluent overflows” from some pump stations but these were “addressed quickly”.

“As a precaution, signs have been put out to urge the public to avoid collecting shellfish in Raglan Harbour for the next couple of days.”

The council’s statement said resourcing plans were in place to manage the impact on Watercare staff availability for the extended outage.

“And a refuelling plan for the generators is being implemented with our contractor to ensure there is no interruption to the generators,” the statement said.

“We apologise in advance for any extra noise created by our generators in Raglan overnight.”

The power in the area is managed by WEL Networks, which maintains 7000km of power lines in the Waikato region, connecting over 100,000 homes and businesses.

WEL Services general manager George Pirie said the company had added temporary generators to those already set up in Raglan last night.

“We now have three larger generators providing power to the majority of customers in the township,” Pirie told the Waikato Herald.

“We hope to broaden this to more customers in the Raglan area and this depends on power use, so we ask people there to please conserve power where at all possible.”

Pirie said work on identifying the fault was “making progress”.

“We have network assets in remote places in Raglan and the other pockets of our network that are still without power.

“We are using helicopters and drones to help with this task, along with on-the-ground crews and specialised test equipment to pinpoint the causes of faults and rectify them.”

Pirie said staff were working “extremely hard” to get the power back on for everyone still impacted.

“We’ve got all available resource working on this and we’ve called in contractor resource to help with the amount of damage we’re needing to repair,” Pirie said.

“We understand this is a frustrating situation and we thank everyone for their patience and understanding as we continue to work to restore power supply.”

WEL Services general manager George Pirie said staff were working “extremely hard” to get the power back on for everyone still impacted.

Meanwhile, Pirie said power was restored to the majority of Hamilton customers by 6pm last night after bad weather cut the power supply to over 15,000 homes in the city.

At the time of yesterday’s outages, a WEL Networks spokesperson said bad weather was causing “widespread damage across the WEL network”.

According to WEL’s website, “widespread network damage” has caused 27 unplanned outages, affecting “approximately” 17,500 customers.

Of these, 15,482 affected customers were in Hamilton, 3254 customers were in the Te Mata area and 274 were in the area near Raglan, between Waingaro and Waitetuna.

A recorded message on WEL Networks’ outage and fault reporting hotline said the outages have affected Raglan, Whatawhata, Hillcrest, Chartwell, Rototuna, Huntington, Puketaha and Gordonton.

Pirie told the Waikato Herald yesterday the squalls of stormy weather and lightning meant crews needed to pause work when necessary to remain safe.

Maryana Garcia is a Hamilton-based multimedia reporter covering breaking news in Waikato. She previously wrote for the Rotorua Daily Post and Bay of Plenty Times.