Chris Fleck said Wellington Water workers were working late into the night after Friday's spill. Photo / RNZ, Samuel Rillstone
By Ellen O’Dwyer of RNZ
Two pieces of timber are being cited as the cause of a recent major sewage spill in Wellington, in which streams of poo and waste flowed down a main street.
Raw sewage streamed down Island Bay parade on Friday, and backed up in some properties, in what residents described as “feral and disgusting“.
A local daycare centre was forced to close because of health concerns.
In a packed public meeting in the suburb on Saturday, Wellington Water’s Chris Fleck said two pieces of timber had blocked the network.
“The main cause of the restriction in the network yesterday [on Friday] was two pieces of timber ... so timber doesn’t get flushed down the toilets, someone has inadvertently put it in the network.
“Don’t know how that would have got there, but that’s what caused the blockage.”
Fleck said the timber had caused wastewater to back up in the network, causing the sewage to “back-flow” into a number of properties and spill out of manholes along the parade.
Island Bay business-owner Fran de Gregorio said despite what had been reported, the sewage had not been unblocked in her mother’s property sewer sump on Saturday.
“I can assure you, there were 11 Wellington Water men on her section last night, at 11 o’clock at night, and they could not clear the sewage system.”
She also said in a separate stormwater system incident, contractors had pulled pieces of wood up from the drain outside her shop in 2024, following major works on the parade.
“Long things – they were pulling out of the drains because they had left them in there and it was about to flood my shop.”
Fleck said Wellington Water workers were working late into the night after Friday’s spill.
Tempers flared about that spill, and maintenance of drains in general, at the community meeting which had been called to discuss flood recovery after April’s storm.
Fleck said the city’s stormwater networks were there to collect and safely dispose of rainfall run-off, but were not designed for extreme events.
He said the one-in-100-year flood in April inundated parts of the network.
Some of the stormwater pipes dated back to the late 1800s and early 1900s, most were between 60 and 90 years old, he said.
“The key point I want to make today, and I appreciate it’s an emotive subject after the events of yesterday [Friday] is that the wastewater networks, and the stormwater networks, are not connected.”
But his comment that Wellington Water regularly checked stormwater intakes was met with yells of “not true” and “don’t lie”.
Mayor Andrew Little interjected.
“Okay, no, there will be time for questions and comments afterwards ... please just let the presentation be completed.”
Fleck repeated staff checked the intakes.
A Wellington Water spokesperson said the pieces of wood about 300-400mm long were found blocking a sewage pipe outside 335 The Parade.
“We can’t be certain how the material entered the network.”
The timber may have ended up in a stream that washed into the system, he said.
He said if people see anybody dumping materials into streams, waterways or pipe networks, they should report that immediately to Wellington City Council.
“Foreign materials have been found previously, such as bricks and other debris. On one occasion a road cone caused a significant blockage.”
The blockage on Friday morning resulted in sewage overflowing through the gully traps on five properties nearby, the spokesperson said, and crews cleaned and disinfected the affected properties.
He said a second blockage occurred later in the day outside 124 The Parade, because of the roots of a pōhutukawa tree.