Veolia’s failures flagged for years before Wellington sewage spill
Thursday, 5 February 2026
A series of scathing reports has flagged repeated operational and management failures at Wellington’s wastewater treatment plants, run by a multinational contractor on a multi-million dollar contract.
The warnings about Veolia, the company contracted in 2017 to operate the Moa Point, Western, Seaview and Porirua operations, were sounded long before Wednesday’s sewage disaster sent tens of millions of litres of untreated waste into Cook Strait and forced beaches to close.
Wellington Water has confirmed all its existing contracts, including to Veolia, will roll over to Tiaki Wai – previously known as Metro Water – when it takes over the region’s water in mid-2026. Wellington mayor Andrew Little is looking into an independent public investigation into the incident when the dust settles.
Veolia had promised “international capability” and excellence when it won the work. However, independent reviewers found those promises largely unmet.
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A 2021 review, commissioned by Wellington Water, described understaffed plants, inexperienced operators and a lack of executive oversight, leaving frontline teams to deal with complex process failures on their own.
The review was triggered by an incident at the Porirua plant in August 2021, when a member of the public, not plant staff, spotted discoloured water near the outfall in Tītahi Bay.
The cause was a contaminated sludge spill and it became a tipping point after repeated failures to lift performance. Wellington Water, the utility jointly owned by the region’s councils, had issued a number of warnings, infringement and abatement notices to Veolia over the previous 18 months.
Appendices to the report revealed avoidable errors including unsecured gates, sampling mistakes, and failures to notify authorities about odour complaints over a holiday weekend.
‘Dysfunctional’ relationship between Wellington Water and Veolia
The report found Veolia failed to carry out basic asset management, including regular maintenance. But it also condemned the working relationship between Veolia and Wellington Water.
Trust had “evaporated”, undermining problem-solving, the report said.
Veolia staff described a “master-slave relationship”, while Wellington Water staff were criticised for lacking the experience to manage a collaborative contract, often resorting to micromanagement and blame.
Despite these criticisms, the review recommended retaining Veolia, because of the high costs and risks in terminating the $170 million contract.
It called for a “radical improvement”, including a Veolia-led taskforce and significant upgrades to Wellington Water’s contract management capabilities.
“Obsolete and outdated” equipment
A follow-up report, into the running of the plants, then blamed multiple failures on equipment that was ageing or in poor condition.
It said equipment such as pumps, blowers and aerators was “obsolete and outdated” and “prone to failure”. Spare parts were hard to come by and there were long delivery times.
As well as this, there was no clear responsibility for monitoring critical equipment or leading renewal programmes.
“There is a lack of advanced monitoring and controls, preventing early detection and intervention to avoid non-compliance,” the report read. “There is evidence that operational staff lack understanding of resource consent conditions and the compliance implications of equipment and process failures.”
Wellington Water’s then-acting chief executive Charles Barker and Veolia’s New Zealand country director Emma Brand warned “unreliable compliance” should be expected until the upgrades were completed.
Increased risk for swimmers and surfers
A 2023 report from engineering firm Stantec focused on Moa Point, the plant at the centre of this week’s crisis.
The plant required an urgent replacement of its ageing ultraviolet disinfection system. Installing the new system forced the plant to operate at half capacity, increasing the frequency of partially-treated wastewater bypasses into the ocean to potentially 65 days a year, the report found.
Under the construction constraints, bypass events lasting more than two hours were predicted on 18% of days, with faecal coliform concentrations rising more than seven-fold.
They said the water being released wasn't just greater in volume, but significantly more polluted. “Each event carries a higher microbiological load because a higher proportion of the discharge is partially treated.”
While a deep-water outfall provided dilution, swimmers, surfers and other water users faced heightened health risks, particularly near the Te Raekaihau and Hue te Taka peninsulas, the report warned.
In 2022, a mechanical failure that reduced capacity by less than a third triggered 14 bypass events in a single year.
The plant is in the process of upgrading the system - which was due to be completed in May - but this imposes an even greater strain, leaving the plant highly exposed, the report warned.
And earlier on Thursday, The Post revealed years of monthly non-compliance reports were recorded at Moa Point.
Wellington Water committee papers from December show serious and long-standing concerns were being raised about the facility, which has been non-compliant every month except two since January 2024. Issues were even noted in the two months it passed.
The Post has contacted Veolia for comment.
Wellington Water and Veolia signed a 10 year, $17 million per year contract to operate and maintain the plants in 2019.
At the time, then-chief executive of the water services utility, Colin Crampton, said the deal marked the start of “a new and exciting focus on managing wastewater for Wellingtonians.”
In November, the utility warned that due to an error by Veolia, residents should expect bad odours in the area close to the Seaview sewage plant.
The facility is notorious for a problem with lingering smells, dating back years.
Last month, partially-treated sewage was released into the ocean after a mechanical failure at the plant.
The company also manages the troubled Queenstown Shotover sewage plant. A malfunctioning sewage disposal field saw partially-treated, toxic sewage to be discharged for months into the protected Kawarau River.
The Environment Court ordered an urgent fix last year and the local council used emergency powers to discharge treated wastewater into the Shotover River.
In 2023, a cryptosporidium outbreak in the tourist hub and a subsequent months-long boil water notice, led Veolia to install a permanent UV disinfection system at the Two Mile Water Treatment Plant.