sh*t in Mahurangi

[Black Panther 1,776]

https://www.change.org/p/stop-watercare-auckland-council-from-polluting-the-mahurangi-harbour?recruiter=278217236&recruited_by_id=dc3f44a0-e3e4-11e4-9127-83271b37040e&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_medium=native&fbclid=IwY2xjawKUm_VleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETE0bHExVlNQTlFhbDRDYlZRAR6pz6FWr3IO4lLz3ztjhmk61HdSWRQ2k2rwCj3RLi7_u6X8oYKKNoNtHJxfgg_aem_HraQBVWLDuw6yykuG3667Q

[waikiore 501]

Is this from the pumping station by Robertsons yard?

[K4309 428]

7 hours ago, Black Panther said:

https://www.change.org/p/stop-watercare-auckland-council-from-polluting-the-mahurangi-harbour?recruiter=278217236&recruited_by_id=dc3f44a0-e3e4-11e4-9127-83271b37040e&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_medium=native&fbclid=IwY2xjawKUm_VleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETE0bHExVlNQTlFhbDRDYlZRAR6pz6FWr3IO4lLz3ztjhmk61HdSWRQ2k2rwCj3RLi7_u6X8oYKKNoNtHJxfgg_aem_HraQBVWLDuw6yykuG3667Q

Well that is a fact free load of emotional ladeda.

Doesn't even have a date on it. Is it from a decade ago? @Black Panther, is that a current thing or some sort of old posting?

Watercare already have a multi-billion dollar project underway to sort it. It's been underway for 5 to 8 years, depending on which bit of physical works you say is the start of the project.

Historically Rodney District Council had a wastewater treatment plant next to Robertsons yard. It was hopeless. The main issue is that Warkworth's poo pipes leak like a sieve, so every time it rains the WWTP gets inundated. Rodney District Council never even had appropriate legal right to access the land the WWTP is on, as it crossed Robertson's land and due to the two Robertsons not talking to each other, RDC could never get legal access over the line. That WWTP was operated without a Resource Consent for a decade or two, as it couldn't even get consent. Couldn't treat to an appropriate standard.

BUT, Rodney District Council kept their rates and wastewater charges nice and cheap.

Last I checked, the Snells Beach WWTP was being HUGELY upgraded to accept all of Warkworth's flow, including the gazzillion new houses going in around Warkworth. The marine outfall at Martin's Bay was upgraded, as was the discharge lines from the Snell's WWTP to the outfall. The Snells site had space for the upgrade.

A new terminal pump station was built at Warkworth and a pipeline tunnelled under the river to the new Snells WWTP. The pump station is in Lucy Moore Memorial Park, at the end of Warkworth Street. That pump station by itself was probably in the order of $500mil. (at least a couple of hundy mil). You can see it in construction on aerial photos. That is how out of date this petition is.

Next minute everyone will be bitching about how much their Watercare bills are.

Or, you could be in the Orewa / Silverdale / Whangaparaoa area where Watercare have placed a complete embargo on new connections. Sounds great, unless you own residential zoned land you now can't build on, or worse, want to live in a house, but can't because you can't get consent due to the wastewater connection embargo.

Even for the technically illiterate, a quick google search throws up the facts of the whole project. Shame the petition didn't do some basic fact checking first.

Warkworth is undergoing significant wastewater infrastructure upgrades, including a new pipeline, pump station, wastewater treatment plant, and outfall pipe to address planned growth and reduce overflows into the Mahurangi River. These projects will accommodate a projected population increase of up to 20,000 people in the coming decades. 

[K4309 428]

On November 10 Piper (a tunnel-boring machine) completed the final leg of her journey to install a five-kilometre-long pipeline to transport wastewater from Warkworth to the Snells Beach Wastewater Treatment Plant. 

The new pipeline is part of a broader programme of work by Watercare to improve the performance of the local wastewater network and support growth in Warkworth, Snells Beach and Algies Bay.

Watercare is investing over $300 million, which includes building a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant at Snells Beach.

Watercare passes major milestone - OurAuckland

[Bad Kitty 329]

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BCECnWoSC/

Here's some more fact free stuff K1234.

I still put a lot of importance on it!

[K4309 428]

19 hours ago, Bad Kitty said:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BCECnWoSC/

Here's some more fact free stuff K1234.

I still put a lot of importance on it!

Yes, it is a shame that Matakana Oysters need to close.

But, some would question the logic of trying to grow and sell filter feeders downstream from a major urban area. A bit like trying to run a tranquil monastery retreat on Quay St, then complaining there is too much noise and traffic.

Asides from a failing wastewater system any urban area is going to produce large quantities of things filter feeders are going to suck up that are very bad for you. Road run-off for example. Including heavy metals from break pads. How much agricultural land is around and upstream of the Mahurangi now? Cows, sheep, pigs, goats, ducks, horses, live-aboard boaties etc are all defecating in the same catchment. And that lot aren't normally captured and treated.

But, my point is that Watercare are spending moonbeams to fix the issue. The various physical works are well underway, and have been for a number of years. So what is the point in criticising them while they are already well underway to fixing the issue?

At the risk of making some people chock on their tea, it could be argued the Super City came about to fix this very problem. The irony being Watercare has the size and balance sheet to actually fund the billion odd dollars of upgrades to fix the issues. The current issues (wastewater overflows) are not to do with urban growth around Warkworth, but a historical lack of investment in infrastructure by the Rodney District Council, specifically old and failed pipes in 'Old Warkworth'.

It is / was the exact same issue that afflicts every town and small city across the country. Communities (Councils) with a static revenue lacking the means to fund long term upgrades to their wastewater networks.

RDC ran the Warkworth WWTP without a resource consent for about 15 years. They didn't even have legal access to the WWTP. And they couldn't afford to do anything about it. Noting that the overflows in April caused by all that heavy rain would have come from the old Warkworth network. Nothing to do with the new developments.

The fact of the matter being that the community (via Watercare) could never have afforded to sort the issues if it weren't for the growth and new developments. Watercare get about $40k lump sum for each new connection, plus water rates in perpetuity. That is why the community (via Watercare) are able to afford this massive upgrade project.

And a hypocrisy that always grates me, the vast majority of people here live in houses (Black Panther being the exception). Yet all of us already living in houses bitch and moan when other people want to live in houses too. That is what land development does, it creates houses so people can live in them, not in cars. Not under bridges. Not in shitbox rotting boats on swing moorings in inappropriate places, erm, like the Mahurangi, where the live-aboards are quietly shitting in the water and spreading norovirus around

So yeah, not great that Matakana Oysters shut down. But it needs to be understood, the current Watercare mob are the only people actually fixing this issue, and that is the first time in about 60 years that anyone actually got their sh*t together enough (excuse the pun) to be able to fix the issue. 

[aardvarkash10 1,139]

Without wanting to shift this into an even more political area (mods!!!!) the situation is a result of residents voting with their short-term brain.  If you oppose the rate increases that are required to continue services and to ensure that systems like sewage are consistently n+20% capacity, you have ipso facto agreed to the inevitable less than ideal outcomes.

In Rodney, there has been 40 years of retirees and small farmers screaming about their limited means while they crosslease and subdivide their nest egg properties (generalisations, but not by much).  Hence, the Mahurangi shitflow. 

[K4309 428]

Absolutely Aa, a 3 year election cycle is entirely incompatible with long term infrastructure planning. The constant chopping and changing of the national land transport plan, hospital builds or even Cook Straight ferries illustrates that well.

Now, to rapidly step away of the political aspects.

People never think they might be part of the problem. It is always someone else, and normally some large organisation that is easy to blame. Ignoring the fact that those organisations are made up of (largely) hard working and dedicated individual.

Example of "I'm not part of the problem" - there was a letter to the editor in this months issue of Boating NZ magazine. Kawau bach owner bitching about boaties discharging wastewater around Kawau, blaming boatings for contaminating and polluting the environment.

Now, there are no roads on Kawau (excluding short roads and South Cove and Schoolhouse Bay). The vast majority of houses on Kawau are only accessed by water. So, how do they maintain their septic tanks? How can they get sucker trucks up to their tanks to empty them?

Now, over the time period the bach owners say all the boats come to Kawau and pollute the water, how many of those baches are rammed full of family, extend family and friends? Overloading their un-maintained septic tanks. 

Oh, and has anyone ever seen the land on Kawau? steep and utterly hopeless at absorbing disposal water...

Is it possible the bach owner is contributing to the problem they are blaming on someone else?

[Bad Kitty 329]

23 hours ago, K4309 said:

But, some would question the logic of trying to grow and sell filter feeders downstream from a major urban area. A bit like trying to run a tranquil monastery retreat on Quay St, then complaining there is too much noise and traffic.

Just like Western Springs speedway, and Ardmore Airport. "It's noisy here" disregarding that the facilities were there long before the whining latte drinkers moved in.

And for the record, I don't just blame Watercare, every facet of Govt, local & central have been asleep at the wheel as a lack of planning & sensible policy has taken it's toll on the NZ environment & lifestyle. 

I'm not prepared to give them all a free pass because they're throwing money at it now.