​Record rainfall continues to affect wastewater

Two consecutive weekends of record rainfall are continuing to put severe pressure on parts of South Taranaki’s wastewater network says South Taranaki District Council’s group manager of community services and infrastructure Fiona Aitken.

“Due to the intensity and duration of the rain over the last couple of weeks, our wastewater systems are inundated. And even though it's not raining now the district is so saturated and the groundwater level is so high it's entering our networks in some places,” she says.

Aitken says the remaining issues are mainly at a couple of locations in Hāwera and Manaia where the networks are full of storm water and are at capacity.

“Our wastewater treatment plants are still getting more flow coming in than what they can pump out which then causes the network to back up. In the short term we have sucker trucks running around-the-clock to clear any discharges and extra resources have been brought in from Whanganui and New Plymouth to help,” she says.

“We would really appreciate it if residents and businesses could minimise wastewater use where possible but what we really need is a couple of weeks of fine weather to allow our plants to recover,” says Aitken.

“In all my lifetime I've never seen so much rain fall in the district, so intensely and over such a prolonged period of time. I think this will be one for the record books.”

Due to the huge amount of rain in the network, the wastewater discharges are very dilute however, signs are in place warning people not to come into contact with the water.

Warnings remain in place at Tawhiti Stream (Hawera), Waingongoro River, and Mangawhero Stream (Eltham), Patea River mouth, Mana Bay, Opunake Beach and Middleton's Bay advising people not to collect fish/shellfish and plant life or come into contact with the water. The warning signs will remain in place until levels are considered safe.

“As a general rule we always advise people not to swim in streams/rivers for at least three days after heavy or prolonged rainfall – even if a site usually has good water quality. That’s because heavy rain flushes contaminants from urban and rural land into waterways.”