We all need to act on sewage

Mike Dinsdale | 10th March 2009

The frequency of sewage spills into Whangarei Harbour has gone "beyond a joke", says Northland Medical Officer of Health Jonathon Jarman.

Dr Jarman said the spills, the latest caused by heavy rain last Thursday and Friday, were happening far too often.

Since January 2002 about 50 sewage spills into the Whangarei Harbour and contributing streams have been recorded from the city's wastewater treatment system. Most times, the harbour had to be closed to swimming and shellfish-taking for between a week and a month, which was potentially damaging for the district's image and tourism.

Dr Jarman said no sewerage system existed that did not risk overflowing in heavy rains.

"But it seems like whenever we get heavy rain we are going to have a sewage spill. From my perspective, it's getting beyond a joke. This is serious and something that's important for Northland.

"We need to fix it and we need to work together to fix it. It's not just the responsibility of the WDC and NRC or the health board, it's going to take everybody."

Whangarei District Council has applied to the Northland Regional Council for a renewed resource consent to dump up to 24,000 cubic metres of untreated sewage a day - enough to fill 10 Olympic-sized pools - into the harbour in emergencies.

The spill at Okara pumping station on Thursday and Friday saw 16,450cu m of sewage spill into the harbour for 22 hours. But no record exists of the amount spilled in 16 hours from the Hatea pumping station because the WDC does not have a measuring instrument there.

Wastewater and Drainage manager Gary Oldcorn said there had been seven spills - six in Whangarei and one in Hikurangi. He said all spills were at problem areas and that the Okara site was at the top of the priority list for repairs.

WDC has about 80 pumping stations.

The consent application has been put on hold while the district council gets public feedback on what they want to do and options available as part of its Long Term Council Community Plan process.

Dr Jarman said it was important that people made submissions to the plan to let the council know their views.

He said farm runoff and septic tanks were also responsible for polluting the harbour.

"There appears to have been a run of spills in the last year or so and the harbour and coastline are really important to Northlanders, they are things we identify ourselves by," he said.

"The harbour is also a special place for Maori and there is a lot of history in that harbour. So when it becomes polluted it affects their health and how they view themselves."

The harbour was also an important food-gathering source and would be relied on even more for kaimoana as the economic times toughened.