Hastings council fined in Environment Court after 200 cubic metres of wastewater spills from sewer main

Nineteen truckloads of waste had to be cleared off a highway after a sewer-flushing operation was disrupted by a power cut, causing a manhole to blow under the pressure.

The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council prosecuted the Hastings District Council, which operates the Clive Wastewater Treatment Plant, following the spill on June 23, 2022.

About 200 cubic metres of untreated domestic and industrial wastewater was discharged through the manhole onto the road.

State Highway 51, which runs between Napier and Clive, was closed for about five hours while the clean-up took place, but not before some vehicles had driven through the mess.

The district council pleaded guilty to one charge of unlawfully discharging untreated wastewater – an offence which carries a maximum penalty of $600,000.

The regional council, through its lawyer Nicola Graham, initially sought a starting point for the fine at about $80,000 to $90,000.

But the penalty was greatly reduced after Environment Court Judge Melinda Dickey found it was “not appropriate” to further burden Hastings’ ratepayers after Cyclone Gabrielle wreaked havoc on the region last year.

The judge also took into account the council’s guilty plea, the clean-up efforts, a restorative justice process, and improvements made to reduce future risks.

She fined the district council $14,000, 90 per cent of which will be paid to the regional council.

The court was told that the spill happened during a routine sewer-flushing operation, which is done by closing a gate to allow the flow to back up, and then opening it so that the accumulated pressure can scour out debris.

After the gate was closed, the electricity lines company Unison cut power to the local area in a programmed outage.

The council had been advised by the electricity company Meridian that this was going to happen.

With no power, the sewer gate did not open at the scheduled time and a “mains failure” alarm in the system went unheeded.

The build-up of pressure popped a manhole on State Highway 51, spilling wastewater across the road and into roadside drains for about an hour.

Hastings District Council said that it managed to clean up about 90 per cent of the spill, with truckloads of waste tipped back into the main sewer reticulation system.

A final clean-up included hosing down, disinfection, and the use of suction pumps.

Judge Dickey said that testing found significantly raised fecal coliforms in nearby Muddy Creek for five days after the spill.

The council advised people to avoid Muddy Creek and the mouth of the Clive River, Te Awa Mokotūāraro, during that time.

“It is often noted in these situations that such discharges make a cumulative contribution to the degradation of waterways,” the judge said.

“I cannot be sure how much of the discharge entered the waterways.”

A spokesperson for the district council said an independent review of the incident was conducted, with a 14-point report detailing aspects of council operations requiring attention and improvement.

“All critical works identified are complete.”

The council had also engaged in restorative justice processes with community representatives “and will continue to do so seeking lasting improvement of environmental outcomes for local community”.

The court was told that since 2019 there had been 25 other recorded incidents of unlawful discharges by the council, of which nine resulted in enforcement action.

These included a $1000 infringement fee for the discharge of 40 cu m of trade waste into a drain in 2019.

The spokesperson said the council was required to report all discharges from the wastewater network as it did not have a resource consent that allowed for uncontrolled discharge.

“This means that all uncontrolled discharges are notified including minor discharges.

“We look after a very large wastewater and urban stormwater network, and a large number of construction sites – especially roadworks. Over time discharges can and do occur.”

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay.