Severe weather conditions from Wednesday 30 April to Friday 2 May may impact the network
Severe weather conditions may impact the network

Due to severe weather conditions forecasted from today, 30 April until Friday 2 May, there may be impacts on the network, 

Heavy rain increases the chance of excess stormwater entering the wastewater network, which it doesn’t have capacity for. This means there is a higher risk of wastewater overflows during wet weather events or emergencies such as major power cuts.

Our operations team are checking known risk areas and working to ensure that the stormwater network will be running as smoothly as possible. 

 

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About us / News and media / News and media / Wastewater discharge - Martinborough wastewater treatment plant

Published 15/01/2020

Wastewater discharge - Martinborough wastewater treatment plant

A discharge of partially treated wastewater has occurred from the Martinborough Wastewater Treatment Plant.

We estimate that about 90,000 litres – three rainwater tanks-worth – of partially treated wastewater entered the Ruamahanga River over a 12 hour period between 9.45pm last night and 10am this morning.

This is about two litres a second, or a dilution factor in the river of about 10,000 to one. Public health and recreational water user risk from the discharge is understood to be negligible.

Discharging treated wastewater to the river is a consented activity under the right conditions, but in this case, the discharge was not in accordance with the consent.

Another 45,000 litres of partially treated wastewater was discharged to land adjacent to the treatment plant, where treated wastewater is normally spread by irrigation.

Authorities at Regional Public Health and Greater Wellington Regional Council as well as iwi and community liaison group representatives have been notified.

We have initiated a full incident response and investigation and the outcomes of this work will be released when completed.

Media Enquiries

Email address:  Media@wellingtonwater.co.nz

Phone number: 021 302 259