Visitors appalled as ferry dumps sewage

By ALAN PERROT

An Auckland real estate agent was lost for words as she tried to distract her overseas guests from noticing the foul-smelling sewage being dumped from their ferry.

Deborah Kelland was still wiping away tears from the emotion of watching Team New Zealand head out for race one of the America's Cup when her group was overwhelmed by a noxious stench.

"It was just horrendous," she said. "I use the ferries quite a bit, so I knew exactly what it was. But we had foreign visitors with us so we were trying to hide it. All we could say was 'I can't imagine what that is'. It was so embarrassing."

Ms Kelland said the ferry began dumping sewage just as it was about to round North Head and directly in front of Team New Zealand.

Auckland Regional Council marine pollution regulations state untreated sewage can be dumped as long as the vessel is more than 500m seaward of the mean high-water mark and marine farms, and in water more than 5m deep.

Ms Kelland was unsure how far they were from the shore, but said even if the dumping was legal it was an extremely bad look for overseas visitors.

"The reaction on the ferry was total disbelief - people were disgusted. The atmosphere went from euphoria to the pits in the space of a few seconds."

Fullers Auckland managing director Chris Bradley said his company were aware of the problem and were working to resolve it.

He said the extended spell of hot weather was making the smell from the tanks worse than usual.

While Fullers' ferries are designed to have the effluent pumped out, Mr Bradley said there were no facilities in Auckland where that could be done, although a pump-out station should be in place as part of the Auckland wharf development project "in the not-too-distant future".

"In the meantime, we're sorry that any distress may have been experienced by some passengers and other boaties," Mr Bradley said.

North Shore City Councillor Joel Cayford, an outspoken supporter of stricter pollution controls, supported Ms Kelland's call for an end to dumping and said ARC regulations were inadequate when applied to fleets as large as those heading out to the cup course each day.

"The rules just aren't up to these situations, especially when you're watching the races and see people being tossed off the yachts and then picked up. They could be up to their eyeballs in bacteria from human waste.

"The gulf is heavily promoted as a playground, but how many playgrounds tolerate having raw sewage dumped in the middle of them?"

But Michael Webster, team leader for environmental protection, does not consider such discharges a significant issue.

He said the volumes being discharged were minuscule when compared to a residential area where large amounts of toilet, kitchen and laundry waste were produced every day.

Auckland Regional Council environmental scientist Dominic McCarthy said the sewage issue had been discussed with Fullers after complaints from passengers, but the council's hands were tied if the regulations were followed.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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