Hazard alert issued as filthy water from Auckland SkyCity fire pumped into harbour

Thursday, 24 October 2019

The fire continues to burn in the Auckland Convention Centre, as seen from a nearby apartment

Contaminated water pooled in the basement of the beleaguered SkyCity Convention Centre from efforts fighting the fire is being pumped into the sea.

About eight million litres is currently being pumped into the Viaduct Harbour through the wastewater network using Fletcher Building equipment, according to Fire and Emergency New Zealand.

Official water quality test results are yet to be released but Safeswim has already issued a warning for St Marys Bay.

Fire crews dampen down hotspots with huge amounts of water.

On Auckland Council's Safeswim website a 'safety warning' has been issued due to 'reports of hazardous substances released into bay'.

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A chemical spill safety warning was issued on Thursday due to reports of hazardous substances being released into St Marys Bay.

* Auckland SkyCity convention centre blaze: Firefighters move to 'mop up' operations

* Auckland SkyCity convention centre fire: First image showing inside damage**

Nick Vigar, Safeswim's programme manager, said the water contained volatile organic compounds, hydrocarbons and combustion products.

There were about 100 cars submerged in water on the ground floor of the building when the decision was taken to pump the water out. There were fears the water would become more polluted the longer it washed around the vehicles, according to Vigar.

The compounds and products in the dirty water could be dangerous to human health and have ecological impacts, Vigar said.

'The worst case scenario if large volumes of the water make its way directly from the stormwater system into waterways is significant effects on ecological life such as shellfish.

'We don't take it lightly to pump it out into the environment. As soon as we can stop that, we will.'

Vigar said authorities were looking at a number of options to get the contaminated water into the wastewater network.

'At Māngere they have biological reactors, if we have toxins in there we will kill them,' he said.

Water quality testing to confirm the level of contamination is expected later on Thursday.

Toxicology results would be available in three days.