Photo by Shaun Lee
Kia ora tātou,
A huge thank you for everyone’s support for Saturday’s community event. It is heartwarming to see the community interest and the kind follow up messages. For those that missed it further information is provided below.
Please do support your local boards and Desley to lock in and progress the Newmarket Gully project https://www.watercare.co.nz/home/projects-and-updates/projects-around-auckland/newmarket-gully-wastewater-project and also the Hapua stream project.
As requested some of the information presented follows
Latest public health notice (1 Pager or 3 Pager) – With summer holidays coming fast please feel encouraged to spread the word. We trust Healthy Waters and the local boards will share it too.
Our beautiful photos of Waitaramoa from Shaun Lee ( Photo Slideshow ).
Slides from Robyn Simcock plus our maps ( Presentation Slideshow ). Some of these may be helpful for your submissions on the local board plans and also Plan Change 120. You are welcome to use the poop tracker map and the slide showing 70 x olympic swimming pools of untreated wastewater water entering the Waitaramoa Bay each year.
Gemma, our wonderful wastewater biologist, has emailed a statement below in lieu of slides.
“I think one of the most important concepts to get across is that the bay is doing the job of a Wastewater Treatment Plant in treating the raw sewage that’s been allowed to flow into it.
An important concept for the community to understand (comprehend) is that in addition to the faecal bacteria that is discharged with human waste in the many overflows that Waitaramoa / Hobson Bay experiences each, and every month, there is also the impact of organic material ( aka faecal solids), which has to be broken down and stabilised.
This process should, and does occur in a Wastewater Treatment Plant, where the waste goes through a number of processes before it can be discharged safely. But in the case of the overflows into Waitaramoa the sewage treatment process is taking place in the bay, where oxygen is stripped out of the water and solids settle and smother the marine life in the sediments. Nutrients released into the environment fuel excessive growths in algae and bacteria. Every aspect of marine life is affected. Dilution is not treatment.
In these zones marine life becomes stressed, and the local environment is modified. Organisms either move away or just die. The impact will be felt by shellfish, marine invertebrates’ algae and fish. The interconnectedness of the natural environment means it is impossible for the ecosystem to “thrive” under such conditions.
The Good News is that once the Harbour is no longer “treating” raw sewage ( instead of it being safely piped to a Wastewater Treatment Plant) it will begin to recover. My work as a Wastewater Biologist teaches me, over and over, that there is a very strong lifeforce mauri within the natural environment, and recovery is truly achievable once these overflows are removed.”
Thanks Gemma!
Ngā mihi,
The Hapua Thrive Team