Mixed views on $12 million plan to stop discharges in to Waiwhetu Stream
Tuesday, 22 August 2017
Local Maori and stream advocates have mixed views on a $12 million plan to deal with the overflow of treated effluent into Lower Hutt's Waiwhetu Stream.
The Hutt City Council has a temporary consent to discharge treated waste from the Seaview Treatment Plant into the stream. The consent expires in February 2018, with the most expensive solution estimated at $200m.
Councillors last week signed off a proposal involving a holding tank and a new discharge pipe into the Hutt River.
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General manager Bruce Sherlock said that after five years of intensive work by experts, he favoured using the holding tank and river discharge option.
There would be no further discharges into the Waiwhetu Stream and it was the most cost effective solution, he said.
Treated wastewater is discharged into the stream four or five times a year during storms and when maintenance is being done on the main outfall pipe to Pencarrow.
Discharges make it unsafe to swim, fish or collect shellfish in the lower reaches of the stream and Hutt River, as well as parts of Wellington Harbour.
Cr Lisa Bridson said she favoured a long outfall into the harbour but at $33m she accepted the need for compromise.
Cr Chris Milne said $12m was still a lot of money and he was unclear about the environmental impacts the project could deliver.
'For $12m we could build a second Fraser Park Sportsville.'
Iwi representative Morrie Love said the stream was an 'icon' to local Maori but any decision had to be weighed up against cost.
Some Maori would argue that any discharge was unacceptable, he said.
Waiwhetu marae elder Teri Puketapu was part of the consultation and had mixed views.
He grew up eating eels and fresh water mussels from the stream before watching it become a polluted waterway.
He would prefer the discharge to be pumped out to sea via a long outfall but conceded the $12m option was a compromise.
'I think it is probably a reasonable solution, at this stage.'
Earlier this year, Sherlock told councillors a new long outfall pipe discharging into Cook Strait could cost as much as $200 million.
Puketapu was recently surprised to see whitebaiters on the stream.
'I do not know if they caught anything but I would not eat anything from the stream.'
Although various councils had spent tens of millions in recent years improving water quality, he said there was still a lot of work to be done before it would be safe to eat eels or watercress.
Merilyn Merrett, from the Friends of Waiwhetu Stream, was also cautiously supportive.
'Our general view is that it is better than the status quo but they could do more.'
Water quality has improved in recent years but she said the level of E-coli was still too high and she did not like seeing children playing in the stream.
The council is required to lodge a resource consent application by November with the Greater Wellington Regional Council.
The council's legal advice is that the issues are complex and that it may ultimately be decided by the Environment Court.