Mayor certain sewage ponds up to scratch

IMPROVEMENT: Oxidation ponds in CHB are being upgraded. The district's Mayor, Peter Butler (inset) said the ponds did meet current resource consent requirements.PHOTOS/FILE

Central Hawke's Bay Mayor Peter Butler has hit back at claims the CHB sewage ponds do not meet council consent requirements after reports suggesting otherwise.

Mr Butler responded to comments made in Hawke's Bay Today, BayBuzz and the blog Whale Oil by Hawke's Bay Regional councillor Tom Belford and Te Mata Estate Winery director John Buck suggesting human excrement was being discharged into the Waipawa River.

"We are getting fed up with people making comments about what our sewage ponds are doing or not doing without coming and talking to us first, they make throwaway statements without providing evidence to back their comments."

He said Central Hawke's Bay's Waipawa and Waipukurau sewage ponds are being upgraded to meet new levels of consent conditions set by Hawke's Bay Regional Council from October.

"Yes, the sewage system is working and meets the current resource consent requirements, and yes, CHBDC is on track to meet the more stringent standards set for October," Mr Butler said in response to Mr Belford's BayBuzz article.

"I think his [Belford] comments are unhelpful and are more aimed at trying to discredit his own regional council.

"How can Councillor Belford be allowed to vote on the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme proposal when the time comes, with his predetermined anti-dam stance?"

Mr Belford could not be reached for comment by Hawke's Bay Today last night.

Mr Butler said a photo purporting to show human excrement in the river was, in fact, silt from new field tiles, laid in paddocks upstream before heavy rain.

"We would hope that in future someone with regional influence such as Mr Buck, who if anyone, in Hawke's Bay understands the value of water, will come and talk to us first so that he can have the facts before going to print.

"Or is he another anti-dam proponent using CHB as a way to get at the regional council?" Mr Butler said.

Mr Buck refused to comment last night.