Anger over harbour sewage snub | Northland News | Local News in Northland

The Whangarei District Council has been accused of ignoring public outcry over the city's sewage spills by not allocating funds to fix the problem in its 10-year-long term draft plan.

According to the draft Long Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP) 2009-2019, passed on Wednesday, no specific funding is allocated for large scale improvements to reduce the frequency of wet weather overflows.

The Save Our Harbour group, which organised a public march over the issue that attracted up to 400 people in Whangarei on December 12, 2008, has urged ratepayers to show similar concern through written submissions.

Public consultation on the draft plan starts on February 25 and ends on March 26. Hearings are scheduled from March 17 to 23 and the final LTCCP will be adopted on May 20.

Group spokesmen Warren Slater and Willie Pohe said people needed to come out of their shells, stand up and be heard during the submission process.

Mr Slater said although the public needed to push for changes, there was no guarantee WDC would take heed of their views.

Mr Pohe said while the local hapu were cleaning up the harbour and funding groups that did similar work, WDC's non-caring attitude didn't help.

The draft plan was approved by all councillors except Vince Cocurullo, who voted against it because of disgust over non-allocation of funding towards important projects such as sewage overflows. He said unless the public spoke out via written and oral submissions, WDC wouldn't do anything about it.

"The council needs to hear their voices, their concerns - this is a major issue and needs to be fixed," Mr Cocurullo said.

Mayor Stan Semenoff said WDC was listening and that public feedback would assist in finalising the long-term plan.

The current draft plan has set aside $79 million for wastewater, including a new wastewater system in Ruakaka South for just over $11 million and treatment plant upgrades. Money has also been set aside for works such as infiltration and flow control to reduce sewage spills.

However, funds for major upgrade would have to wait until the next plan in 2012.

The council needs $22 million to reduce overflows to once every five years and $25 million for once every 10 years. Replacing the entire ageing wastewater system could cost $184m.

Ongoing public consultation on the best options for fixing the problem would take two to three years, the draft plan states: "Because of the size and scale of work, council wants to make sure that the options it puts before the public are thoroughly researched and provide a good basis for decision-making and that stage has not yet been reached."

In the meantime, WDC has applied to the Northland Regional Council for a five-year renewal of its consent to allow for up to 24,000cum of untreated sewage a day into Whangarei Harbour during emergencies.

It similarly wants a new consent to construct a sewage outfall from the Butter Factory Lane sewage manhole into the Waiarohia Stream.