Source: Radio New Zealand
The wastewater treatment plant catastrophically failed in February RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Wellington City Councillors are considering giving financial support to businesses drastically affected by the Moa Point treatment plant meltdown.
Businesses RNZ spoke to said the funding is badly needed, but that it is “gutwrenching” sewage is still being pumped into the ocean, with one saying it will be forced to shut its doors if the plant is not fixed before summer.
It had been nearly three months since the wastewater treatment plant catastrophically failed in February, and which had been spewing millions of litres of raw sewage into the sea ever since.
No date had been provided for when the plant would be fixed.
The council would decide this week whether to give businesses one-off grants, capped at $35,000 from a maximum $150,000 fund.
The Botanist cafe co-owner Maria Boyle said her business had lost between 30 and 50 percent revenue due to the failure.
The Botanist cafe co-owner Maria Boyle says financial support for businesses is badly needed. RNZ / Ellen O’Dwyer
Boyle said the cafe – set in the heart of Lyall Bay – was usually packed until the end of summer, but that the streets emptied out after 4 February, when raw sewage was spilling close to the shoreline – and forcing South Coast beaches to shut.
“We should normally have had at least a couple of months of decent trade to get us through, and it was just cut completely dead.
“We had to cut hours, and try and move staff to some of our other places so they wouldn’t suffer as well – but it’s been so bad.”
In order to be eligible, businesses would have to apply for the grants, be located within a “high-impact zone”, or directly reliant on ocean activities, be able to demonstrate a revenue loss of at least 50 percent, be Wellington-owned with fewer than 20 employees, and operating for at least a year.
Boyle said The Botanist lost about $35,000 in a couple of weeks in February, and that the support would be a “huge help” for businesses like hers.
But she said the cafe would not survive if the plant was not fixed by next summer.
“It will be beyond a disaster. It’s already a disaster, we will definitely be closing – we won’t make it through another summer.”
While South Coast beaches were open again on fine days, the plant was still spewing screened, untreated sewage through its long outfall pipe, about one kilometre off-shore.
When it rained heavily, the system could not cope, and the sewage spilled close to the shore at Tarakena Bay, from a secondary pipe used for overflow.
Dave Drane, owner of Dive Wellington, estimated he had lost between 20 and 25 percent of his revenue due to the disaster.
Dive Wellington owner Dave Drane says retail sales have dropped due to people being reluctant to dive in the ocean. RNZ / Ellen O’Dwyer
Months on, many were too scared to dive with the plant not working, he said.
That had dramatically reduced the numbers of people buying or hiring gear.
“People just aren’t walking in because they’re not diving on this coast, so we’re not getting the walk-in public. Retail, pretty much some days it’s dropped to zero – we can be a zero day income.”
Hugh Collins, who runs Ocean Hunter, a spear-fishing and diving business in Lyall Bay, agreed.
“I’d say the majority of our customers just don’t feel safe going out there, which sucks, you know, you look out at our pristine coastline and it’s quite gutwrenching to know that that’s happening.”
A $35,000 dollar grant would not completely cover his losses, he said, but it would help.
Hugh Collins says his diving business has been drastically impacted by the Moa Point disaster. RNZ / Ellen O’Dwyer
According to Wellington City Council documents, Destination KRL, a local business group, provided indicative figures that about 25 businesses lost a combined $120,000 per week during the month of February.
Wellington Mayor Andrew Little said councillors on Thursday would discuss offering the grants, and he would be supporting the idea.
“We are doing what we can, we’re not an insurance company, we’re not there to alleviate every risk, that every business faces.
“But we do feel a responsibility, these are businesses in our community – I know that some of the worst affected ones, it’s going to be next summer now, before they get the opportunity to recover properly.”
Little believed the plant would take months to fix.
Wellington mayor Andrew Little. RNZ / Mark Papalii
Wellington Water said it would be presenting a timeline of repair works for the plant to the council in the next two weeks.
Chief operating officer Charles Barker would not provide the details to RNZ in a recent interview – saying the council needed to be briefed first.
“It wouldn’t be fair on our owners, we manage the asset, we don’t own the asset, so it’s only right that the councils get to see it, and understand first, before we share it with the public, but we are doing that as fast as possible.
“They are as impatient as the public are – to see it.”
He said a lot of new equipment for the plant’s UV project, and equipment for the control and management system, had been ordered.
Barker said he wa intending to present a “robust” timeline which would present when major elements of repair works would occur, in a way the community could track.
“We need to deliver a programme that is robust … that is realistic, and that can be held to account.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
