Sewage dumped on farmland

TANKER loads of virtually raw sewage are being illegally dumped on farmland in an otherwise pristine part of South Wairarapa and outraged locals are demanding it stops.
The dumping of tonnes of septic tank sludge on grazing land and close to a river near Pirinoa has apparently been happening for years but only now has come to public notice.
Lower valley resident and chairman of the South Wairarapa District Council's Maori Standing Committee Sonny Te Maire raised the matter at a council meeting this week as a general business item at the tail end of the meeting.
Mayor Adrienne Staples quickly responded, saying the matter would be investigated.
Yesterday, Mr Te Maire and Mary and Maurice Tipoki, who farm along Whakatomotomo Road, took reporters and photographers to the isolated spot where the sewage is being dumped.
The Tipoki family claim the Ministry of Agriculture, the Greater Wellington Regional Council and the South Wairarapa District Council are all aware of the dumping and have done nothing about it.
They hold some hope that latest approaches this time to the Ministry of the Environment may finally dry up deliveries.
Laws governing the dumping of septic tank sludge insist that cleaning tanks must dispose of the waste down sewers, having paid a fee, or into otherwise approved disposal areas controlled by proper oxidation facilities.
Normally a fee of around $35 a tonne is imposed and forms part of the charge levied against the owner of the cleaned tank.
Mrs Tipoki said the sewage is being dumped on communally-owned Maori land 60m to 70m from the Turanganui River.
Her family's involvement with the problem arose when the Maori owners had approached her husband with a proposal to lease the block to him for cattle grazing.
Mr Tipoki was horrified to discover evidence of random sludge dumping all over the block and was reluctant to put stock on it.
He has since tried in vain to get authorities to investigate the land with a view to stopping the dumping and to declare whether the land will ever be suitable, or safe to graze.
The land on which the sludge is being off-loaded is situated right alongside a gravel public road albeit in an isolated part of the lower valley.
It is bordered by the river on one side and hillsides of regenerating native bush on the other.
Mrs Tipoki said apart from the likely health risks to humans and animals it is also "an insult" to the absentee Maori owners to have sludge dumped on their property.
It is firmly against Maori protocol to dump body wastes on land near waterways, she said.
She said she had phoned the South Wairarapa District Council office seeking clarification on its policies regarding the disposal of septic tank waste and had received a reply she described as "non-specific".
Approaches to the other local authorities also failed to get a proper response.
Mr Tipoki said he is hopeful the Environment Ministry would start an investigation as he had been speaking to one official who seemed to take the matter seriously.
Alerting district health officers was another option.
Mrs Tipoki said it had become evident that the dumping had been going on for a long time "probably for years" and that people living along the long, but sparsely populated road had recalled seeing tankers going past their homes from time to time.