Water and sewage firm's pollution issue resolved

The Auckland Regional Council has had a change of heart about pressing pollution charges against Waitakere City Council and Techscape, a water and sewer services company jointly owned by Waitakere and North Shore City Councils.

At a preliminary hearing in the Auckland District Court yesterday the region's environmental regulator offered no evidence to support the charges it laid in September after city sewers overflowed.

The charges were then dismissed by Judge Fred McElrea, who had been told the ARC had since taken up the defendants' request for mediation and this had been successful.