Hutt residents ‘gagging’ after bad smell spikes at treatment plant
Monday, 30 September 2024
A fire and mechanical breakdown has neighbours crying foul over the latest stink from the Seaview Waste Water Treatment Plant.
Problems with the sludge dryer, which dries out sludge before it is trucked to the Silverstream Landfill, are behind the latest noticeable increase in odour.
Last week Lower Hutt residents reported smelling it from as far away as Naenae, approximately 7km to the north, and there were widespread reports of it being worse than ever.
Wellington Water posted there had been a “spike” in odour.
“We are aware there has been a lot of frustration amongst members of the community about odour levels in recent days. We also acknowledge this may have caused distress and been unpleasant.”
Although the dryer was fixed on Friday, Wellington Water said there would be on-going issues with odour until the dryer reaches full capacity.
Waiwhetū resident Kylie Klein-Nixon, who works for Stuff, said the smell was impossible to ignore.
“It was the worst it has ever been, and you can quote me on that.”
She could smell it inside her house and she felt nauseous.
Angry neighbours have formed a social media page, Stop the Stench, and Chris Hetherington, who lives close to the plant, agreed the recent episode took the stink to a new level.
He was aware of the treatment plant when he purchased his house 13 years ago.
Wellington Water had told him it had a $13 million programme to upgrade the plant, including fixing odour issues, but he was sceptical it would make a difference.
“I am more than frustrated, I am absolutely losing it.”
Over the weekend, it had got so bad he rang and asked for the plant’s duty manager to ring him on Monday morning.
Reports that it could be smelled as far away as Naenae showed how serious the situation was and he wanted the regulator, Greater Wellington, to do more to hold the plant accountable.
Wellington Water network manager Jeremy McKibbin said he understood why people were frustrated and distressed by the unpleasant odour.
Wellington Water was doing everything possible to mitigate the problem.
The heightened odour levels were due to a backlog of wet sludge held in the treatment process. The backlog resulted from two unrelated outages of the sludge dryer.
The first dryer outage was because of a minor fire and the second due to a mechanical failure.
“Both these incidents meant the sludge dryer was offline, so we had to dispose of de-watered sludge by transfer to landfill from the plant.”
The sludge dryer was brought back into service last Friday, however there wasnow a backlog of sludge that needed to be cleared.
He said Wellington Water “regret the impact of increased odour levels” and had done everything possible to keep neighbours informed.
Tash Lajpold-Whippy was one of many who took to social media. “Some smells last week were so rank I was dry retching while driving. You have to turn air con off around the whole area of Gracefield and the Seaview roundabout.”
Tim Ralton agreed. “Drove through from Seaview on Friday and got hit with the stink. Really, really glad I don't work anywhere near that stench.”
On Monday morning Anthony Coomer posted that he was making a complaint.
“Just got to work in Seaview and it's so bad I was gagging walking between the street and the front door of our building.”
Hetherington said no one should have to live with such an unpleasant smell.
“People are just fed up with it, no community should have to put up with this.”