Source: Radio New Zealand
Seaview Wastewater Treatment Plant. RNZ / Krystal Gibbens
Wellington Water is warning Seaview residents that due to an “error” by the operators of its Seaview sewage plant, locals should expect bad smells in the area.
The Seaview Wastewater Treatment Plant is notorious in the community for causing bad odours, which some have described as being so bad it made them dry retch.
Wellington Water said following an “error” on Thursday with routine operational maintenance undertaken by its contractor Veolia, the biological process for the plant has become unbalanced – which would likely cause more smells.
To manage the risk it would bring in trucks to remove wet sludge from the plant, which would give the process of the plant its best opportunity to become stable again, it said.
“It’s important that the local community are aware and they should expect increased odour from both the sludge trucking and the plant.”
The water provider’s chief executive Pat Dougherty has apologised and said they’d hold Veolia to account.
“This is completely unacceptable.
“We acknowledge that it was around the same time last year that we had issues with odour from the plant and we are gutted that this has happened yet again at the start of summer.”
Dougherty said Wellington Water was committed to reducing the impact of the issue and to ensure it did not happen again.
“We have asked Veolia to provide a robust plan so we can give our community confidence moving forward.”
Just over a year ago fire in the plant’s sludge dryer caused an increase in odour near the plant.
At the time Greater Wellington Regional Council had received hundreds of complaints about the smell at the plant.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
