The Lower Hutt suburb that smells 'like a three-day-old portaloo'

Friday, 10 November 2023

The roundabout on Seaview Road has been saturated in an unholy stench in recent days, according to local businesses.

Lower Hutt businesses are calling for a permanent solution to a “shit-uation” that has left daytime workers gasping and gagging, official complaints show.

The Seaview Wastewater Treatment Plant has received 75 complaints about its offensive odour since 2021, according to reports released in accordance with its consent conditions.

Jaysen Eveleigh of Auto Despatch said the stench had become a health and safety issue.

“It smells like a portaloo after a three-day festival. I have staff who won’t eat lunch in our building.”

Eveleigh said he had builders come in to construct a fence, but they complained of headaches and had to leave.

The Seaview Wastewater Treatment Plant has received 75 complaints about offensive odour since 2021, according to reports that have been released in accordance with its consent conditions.

He said he had made numerous complaints to the council after which the treatment plant seemed to disperse a “perfume” in the air, but it hadn’t helped.

Mechanic Brad Sime said it had been “absolutely disgusting” in recent days, but the smell had always been there in some capacity.

“I’ve been here 15 years, and it’s the worst it’s even been. All my customers complain. It’s quite rancid, and it hangs around, and can even make you nauseous.”

Evan “Big Ev” Still, also known as the Food Dude, said the strength depended on wind direction, and it mainly blew towards Hutt Park.

Since he had shifted his food truck to the other side of the plant, on Port Road, his situation had improved.

“It doesn’t really impact me, but it just smells like a terrible terrible toilet.”

Veolia has a $17 million-a-year contract with Wellington Water to operate four wastewater treatment plants, including at Seaview.

In December 2022, the Greater Wellington Regional Council issued the treatment plant’s operator, Veolia, with a “please explain”.

Veolia Process and Technical Specialist Derek Falvey told Stuff he couldn’t be sure that the odours that locals were complaining about were coming from the plant. He said there were other treatment facilities nearby.

He said Veolia had been operating an “odour blaster” currently at the plant, and it was going “full noise”. It's a huge fan that blows a chemical mix that minimises smells.

“What we have is an odour like Rotorua and the blaster mitigates that.”

However, Stuff can reveal that Veolia has had to compensate city councils for $7250 in fines in the last three years as a result of breaching resource consent conditions with the stench.

Bromley resident Sandra Bennet says a lot more could have been done for people affected by the ongoing stench from the fire-damaged Christchurch wastewater plant.

Greater Wellington Regional Council issued it four infringement notices and an abatement notice for “discharge of objectionable and offensive odour”.

Jaysen Eveleigh said the fines hadn’t seemed to fix the problem.

“We want it not to smell like shit all the time. It’s that simple. If that was my business, I would have been shut down.”

A solution may be in sight, but it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Residents and businesses received a letter saying that the smell was likely to get stronger over the next three months while the plant’s “biofilters” were replaced.

Stinky gases are pumped through a bed of bark which contains bacteria that break down the smell before the air is released.

A spokesperson for council organisation Wellington Water said it was the first step towards ensuring the plant’s odour control is operating as effectively as possible and within resource consent levels.

“Once installed, the biofilter will minimise the levels of odour from the plant, which we appreciate has been a concern and point of frustration for some residents.”

Records show that Wellington Water and Veolia knew there was an issue with the biofilter in November 2021 and had scheduled maintenance work for January 2022.

However, those works were reportedly delayed while they tested a formula for the biofilter. The used-up bark also had to be tested for contaminants before it was sent to landfill.

Veolia and Wellington Water were previously criticised in an independent report in 2022 for failing to carry out basic maintenance which had resulted in the discharge of untreated sewage.

Wellington Water is owned by five local councils and the regional council, and has a $17 million-a-year contract with Veolia to operate four wastewater treatment plants.