Wastewater discharge - Martinborough Wastewater Treatment Plant
An ongoing issue at the Martinborough Wastewater Treatment Plant has again resulted in a discharge of partially treated wastewater into the Ruamahanga River. This occurred on Monday 27 January between 9.20am and 11.30am.
Wellington Water is sorry that this has happened again and for the delay in reporting the issue to the Council. Action is now under way to get in front of this issue and to improve protocols in communicating to both Council and customers.
Although discharging treated wastewater to the river is a consented activity under the right conditions, when the river is low these types of discharges are invariably a breach of resource consent.
The Martinborough Wastewater Treatment Plant will have a review in order for potential points of operational failure to be identified ahead of time; this work has been prioritised for the next few days.
This discharge event and the previous one involved issues with the irrigator, which meant that discharge to adjacent land didn’t happen. With the storage ponds being full and no discharge to land possible, the designed contingency is discharge to the river, which we know is unacceptable.
Authorities at Regional Public Health and Greater Wellington Regional Council as well as iwi and community liaison group representatives have been notified.
The first incident occurred between 9.45pm on Tuesday 14 January and 10am Wednesday 15 January 2020, this resulted in 90,000 litres of partially treated wastewater discharged to the Ruamahanga River.
This latest incident resulted in 100,000 litres of partially treated wastewater discharged to the river, as well as 300,000 litres of fully treated wastewater.
Due to the dilution factor in the river, it’s understood that public health and recreational water user risk from all discharges was negligible.
However, Wellington Water is committed to doing better with how wastewater discharges enter the environment and are working on options for this. A full incident response and investigation of the outcomes of this work will be released when completed.
Poll: Are quality products on the decline?
Gift-giving looks a lot different these days when you can pick up super-cheap goods made overseas. But do they last?
Do you have any old items like appliances, electronics or clothing that have stood the test of time? Share below!
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91.5% Yes
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7.8% No
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0.8% Other - I'll share below
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Kmart duvet recall
Kmart will be recalling a number of their Anko duvet sets.
What you need to know:
- The recall is involving Christmas-themed duvets: Mrs & Mrs Claus Reversible Queen Size Bed Quilt Cover Set and Christmas Elf Reversible Single Bed Quilt Cover Set
- A recall of the products began in Australia following health concerns from several families.
- One woman said she thought she was having a heart attack after using one of the products which smelt of diesel.
- One customer said she’d purchased the quilt covers and said they smelled like gas. Another mum said hers did not have that smell but claimed her son developed a rash that only went away when he stopped using the product.
- The product is no longer available for purchase on the Kmart website.
Regardless of whether you have experienced an issue, customers who have purchased this item may return the product to store for a refund.
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