Frustrated South Coast residents have demanded answers of the city’s leaders over the Moa Point sewage plant disaster, but remained none the wiser on what caused the failure or when it may be fixed at a heated public meeting.
The event, hosted by local Wellington MPs Julie Anne Genter and Tamatha Paul, was held at a packed-out St Patrick’s College auditorium in Kilbirnie last night, and fronted by Mayor Andrew Little, community leaders, and independent experts.
It gave around 200 locals a chance to vent their dissatisfaction with the sewage plant failure that has caused 70 million litres of untreated sewage to flow into the city’s coast each day since.
Wellington Water CEO Pat Dougherty was supposed to attend but was absent due to travel disruptions from Monday’s wild weather.
Dougherty has not been heard from publicly after he revealed there were potentially early warning signs before the disaster in an interview with RNZ, something no one involved will elaborate on.
In Dougherty’s place was the agency’s chief operating officer, Charles Barker, who told the crowd he was “gutted” about the situation, but could not share many details about what led to the failure so as to not “jeopardise” the Government’s independent inquiry.
Barker did, however, reveal that following inspections of 300m of the 1.8km long outfall pipe at the Moa Point facility, Wellington Water had not found any issue with the pipe itself, in response to a question from former city councillor Helene Ritchie.
“The structure seems to be intact,” he said, but would not say what else could have led to the failure which has been described as “catastrophic”.
He said crews were 95% of the way through cleaning the material that was left in the plant when it failed on February 4, and the necessary level of power has been reinstated to the plant.
Kilbirnie, Rongotai and Lyall Bay business association manager Steve Walters said he had heard reports of businesses being down 96% since the incident, saying local surfing, diving, and fishing operators were worst affected.
Walter encouraged locals to support businesses in the area, saying it was the worst time of the year for the discharge to have happened.
“It’s a catastrophe, but let’s not be doomsayers”, he said, urging people not to overstate the impacts of the issue, as it could be detrimental to local businesses.
Also present from Wellington Water was soon-to-be acting board chairman, Bill Bayfield.
Bayfield said Wellington Water has been in discussions with Veolia, the independent contractor operating the facility, and Wellington City Council about the age and performance of the plant for some time.
Veolia, an international water management giant contracted to operate the Moa Point facility, were not present at the meeting, but faced boos and hissing from some in attendance upon mention of their potential responsibility.
The company has been criticised in previous independent reports for its operations and concerns about non-compliance.
“Where are they?” some in the audience shouted, with cheers when an audience member suggested the multinational be made to pay for the disaster.
The meeting was punctuated by many heckles and jeers, with the crowd at one point voicing concern at the prospect of the city’s ratepayers footing the bill to fix the damaged plant.
“There’s a whole bunch of insurance claims being made by various parties,” Little said, but Wellington City Council as the owner of the asset was likely to have to pay initially.
Asked if there was a chance of an additional rates increase or levy to fund the repairs, Little assured concerned residents that “there’s not going to be any emergency rate”.
Tamatha Paul spoke of “misinformation” from “bad-faith actors” which she said was rampant on social media around the causes and contributing factors of the incident, to cheers from the crowd.
One attendee suggested every Wellington ratepayer be given a composting toilet to ease pressure on the plant, another highlighted the fact that Wellington Water board chair Nick Leggett had “happened to leg-it,” referencing his resignation on Sunday over the disaster.
One person called for Little and former Wellington mayors to pitch a tent at the Tarakena Bay beach where the discharge occurred for a two-day wānanga to “come up with a real solution so this never happens again”.
Towards the end of the event, Julie Anne Genter advocated for better funding of local government, saying “we need to make sure that they’re getting a fair share of government taxation and revenue overall so that they can afford to pay” for infrastructure.
A rare moment of positivity emerged when Andrew Stewart, Te Papa’s fishes collection manager and author of Fishes of New Zealand said he did not believe the issue would have any long-term damaging environmental impact, but acknowledged it was a “ghastly” situation for the environment.
The recent poor weather in the capital was something of a blessing for the discharge, Stewart said, with the rain and strong currents helping to “dilute things right down”.
The event was finished after an hour and a half.
A Crown Review team will be established next month to probe what went wrong at the sewage facility, and make recommendations to prevent something similar ever happening again.
Ethan Manera is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.