Members of Stop Polluting the Manukau Harbour Society at the proposed treatment site. From left, Jim Jackson, David Jackson, Olivia Jackson, Tessa Gasson, Rose McLaughlan, Mark Gasson. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
Members of Stop Polluting the Manukau Harbour Society at the proposed treatment site. From left, Jim Jackson, David Jackson, Olivia Jackson, Tessa Gasson, Rose McLaughlan, Mark Gasson. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
Residents in the small rural community of Glenbrook Beach have erected a blunt sign on the roadside by a market garden where Watercare plans to build a wastewater treatment plant and discharge treated effluent into the Manukau Harbour.
“Are we Nimbys?” says Olivia Jackson, one of the group behind the‘Shit or Potato’ sign.
“Absolutely. We swim, fish and use boats in the harbour. There is the opportunity for Watercare to do the right thing and stop polluting the Manukau Harbour.”
In the past month, dozens of Glenbrook Beach residents have joined Stop Polluting the Manukau Harbour Society to fight Watercare’s resource consent application to rezone a 56ha market garden planted in potatoes on prime soil for wastewater treatment purposes.
The roadside sign 'Shit or Potato' erected to protest against a wastewater treatment plant on a market garden site. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
Among them are members of the Jackson family, including Jim Jackson who founded the hugely successful electrical firm Jackson Industries in 1977, and is known to councils and environmentalists as a passionate and tireless battler to restore the health of the Manukau Harbour.
The council-owned water company already has consent to build a new $400 million-plus wastewater treatment plant to service the city’s growing populations of Waiuku, Clarks Beach, Glenbrook and Kingseat on the southwest corner of the Manukau Harbour. The new plant will replace existing plants at Waiuku, Clarks Beach and Kingseat that Watercare says are coming to the end of their design lives.
Watercare has stated the site at 372 Glenbrook Beach Rd is an ideal location - it’s large and the distance from neighbouring properties and modern technology means any odour will be contained within the site.
“The wastewater will be treated to a high quality and discharged 100 metres off the 12th green at the Clarks Beach Golf Course. The treated effluent will be discharged on the outgoing tide,” the company said.
The society strongly disagrees and wants Watercare to upgrade the existing wastewater treatment plant at Waiuku on industrial-zoned land adjacent to the Glenbrook steel mill.
It would like to see the treated effluent discharged into the Tasman Sea or reused at the nearby steel mill which typically requires 20,000 tonnes of fresh water a day.
Society chairman Mark Gasson said members supported the plant but it was in the wrong place, saying for five years until 2021 Watercare had been saying the best location was at the existing site at Waiuku.
The society is at a loss to understand the about turn, which saw Watercare initially opt for a site at Clarks Beach. When that fell through, Watercare selected Glenbrook Beach Rd.
Society president Mark Gasson says the treatment plant is needed but in the wrong location. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
Gasson said the society was especially concerned about the impact of treated effluent taking 19 to 21 days to “fester” in the Manukau Harbour before reaching the Tasman Sea, saying the better solution is to cut out the middleman and pipe it directly out to sea.
Another bugbear for the society is Watercare paying $11.26m for the land at Glenbrook Beach Rd when it is valued at $4.38m.
Jim Jackson, who spent 10 years battling for the $28 million redevelopment of Onehunga beach and parkland, said over his lifetime he has watched the water quality of Manukau Harbour deteriorate and scallop beds disappear.
He is worried about the impact of Watercare discharging high-quality fresh water into a saltwater environment above one of the last remaining scallop beds in the Manukau Harbour, which, he said, has the potential to destroy it.
In a presentation to the Franklin Local Board last week, the society showed a photo of a health warning sign not far from the outfall at the Māngere wastewater treatment plant warning against swimming or collecting shellfish due to the discharge of treated effluent.
Jim Jackson has spent years battling to improve the health of the Manukau Harbour. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
The saltwater crabs that birds feed on have disappeared, along with the adjoining scallop bed and commercial fishermen describe the area near the Māngere plant as a ‘dead zone’, the society told board members.
Watercare’s head of strategy and planning, Priyan Perera, said the distance between the Māngere plant discharge and the future discharge at Clarks Beach is the distance to the shore.
“At Clarks Beach, we will be discharging 100m off the shore at a high-flow section of the Waiuku Channel on the outgoing tide. As the water released passes through a diffuser, it will be diluted much more quickly. At this stage, there are no firm plans for signage, but we work closely with the Auckland Regional Public Health Service and will take their guidance,” he said.
The Glenbrook Beach Rd project has similarities to Watercare’s plans for a $400m water treatment plant at Oratia in West Auckland six years ago.
On that occasion, following fierce opposition from the local community, which faced the loss of up to 18 homes and rural properties, the board ditched the plan and chose to build a new plant alongside the existing Huia water treatment plant at Titirangi.
Watercare is boxing on to gain consent to build the new plant at Glenbrook Beach Rd, saying environmental experts have concluded the high-quality treated wastewater will improve the ecology and water quality in the Waiuku Channel that runs into the Manukau Harbour.
The existing waste water treatment plant at Waiuku.
It said the Waiuku site had the highest construction cost and would require a pipeline to take wastewater from Kingseat, Clarks Beach and Glenbrook and a second 7.5km pipeline to take the treated wastewater to discharge at Clarks Beach. The second pipeline would not be needed with the plant at Glenbrook Beach Rd.
Watercare said it was not going ahead with building a pipe to the Tasman Sea because of the difficulty of constructing an outfall in the coastal environment and reduced options for reusing the treated water in the future.
Submissions on the resource consent close on November 13.
