Moa Point repair crucial for $500m sludge plant - operation date ‘speculative’

Thursday, 26 February 2026

Wellington Water has confirmed repairing Moa Point’s wastewater treatment facility is crucial to the opening of the sludge minimisation facility, Te Whare Wai Para Nuku.

This comes as Wellington mayor Andrew Little dived into Lyall Bay on Wednesday after announcing the reopening of Wellington’s southern beaches, except for Tarakena Bay, after the Moa Point failure. He warned people to be cautious and check Lawa.org.nz for conditions.

“It’s speculative exactly when Moa Point would be returning to operation to make the sludge for the sludge minimisation facility,” Wellington Water chief operating officer Charles Barker said at Lyall Bay on Wednesday.

He confirmed the sewage plant was needed for the sludge plant to operate. “That will be one of the factors about how we determine the fastest and most appropriate way to return Moa Point back to working.”

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The team working on the sludge minimisation facility was separate to that restoring the Moa Point sewage plant.

“The sludge minimisation facility is a Wellington City Council project. There’s a really robust team around there working. We don’t rely on any of those contractors for Moa Point work.”

The Moa Point sewage treatment plant sits alongside the under-construction sludge treatment plant. The eventual goal is for treated wastewater to go to the sludge plant, where it will be turned into pallets for gardens.

Wastewater is currently discharged untreated along a 1.8km pipe into Cook Strait near the Lyall Bay mouth. Before the February 4 failure, it was treated before being sent into the sea.

This week, the Wellington City Council website stated the sludge plant completion date was set for late-2026 but The Post recently reported it had shifted to February 2027, then to April.

The sludge plant was going to cost $200m in 2021 then $511m in 2025. The latest estimates put it just under $500m.

Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter said the public’s patience was wearing thin.

“People want to know what happened and when it will be fixed. I know mana whenua and the people of the south coast will want to ensure we are treating sewage in the long term, because people expect clean beaches and want to protect our marine life from pollution.”

News of the re-opening of beaches bodes well for local residents and business owners, who have felt the impacts of beach closures since the February 4 catastrophe.

At Queens Drive Dairy, where business dropped by 60% after the start of the spill, Gita Parbhu said the news of the reopening was “great to hear”. Nearby at Seaview Takeaways, Vicky Shen was “very happy”.

Little suggested on Wednesday that now most of Wellington’s southern beaches had reopened, locals could resume their use of these areas, with the resumption of footfall aiding businesses such as Queens Drive Dairy.

People should check with the Ministry for Primary Industries before collecting kaimoana.