Gisborne District Council angered after sewer blocked by dumped garden waste; Waka ama paddlers can’t train on river

Contractors working at Gisborne's Oak St pump station on Tuesday. Gisborne District Council said it was forced open the emergency sewer valve on Oak St into the Taruheru River on Monday due to someone putting garden waste down a manhole. Photo / Murray Robertson

Gisborne’s waka ama paddlers are feeling the impact after a health warning was put in place over the city’s waterways following what has been slammed as an “inexcusable” sewer blockage caused by garden waste dumped into a manhole.

The council posted to its social media page on Monday evening that it had to open an emergency sewer valve on Oak St into the Taruheru River at 5pm due to the sewer pipe backing up.

The district council post pulled no punches.”What the *#&*@ [sic] who’s cutting up garden waste and putting it down a manhole in the Mangapapa area?? Thanks to that clown, we’ve had to open the emergency sewer valve on Oak St.

“For goodness sake, please take your green waste to the transfer station or hire a wheelie bin - don’t dump it down a manhole or chuck it down a riverbank even.”

The blockage forced the council to open the emergency discharge valves at Oak St in Mangapapa, putting raw sewage into the Taruheru River.

Since then, health warning signs have gone back up on the city rivers and beaches for a mandatory five-day period.

At this time of the year, the Gisborne city rivers would be busy with paddlers training for the Waka Ama Sprint Nationals. Not on Tuesday after an incident in Mangapapa resulted in raw sewage going into the river and health warning signs going up.

Residents were advised to avoid fishing, swimming, or gathering shellfish in the river and beaches until at least five days after the emergency sewer valve was closed after the blockages were removed.

The valve was opened at 5pm on Monday and closed again at 5.30am on Tuesday, meaning the warning would likely be in place until 5.30am on Sunday.

“We were able to close it as the system coped overnight Monday,” the council said.

“If it starts to build up due to more rain, we’ve set up an overland pumping system to divert that flow across the Stanley Rd footbridge to the sewer main pipe.”

Horouta Waka Hoe’s Walton Walker said it was a “crushing blow” to the training programmes for all city-based crews and individuals.

The week-long Waka Ama Sprint Nationals start on Sunday at Lake Karapiro near Cambridge and involve a large number of Gisborne athletes.

“We’re only a few days out from the start of competition and crews needed to able to finish off their training,” Walker said. “Especially given we already lost five days because of rain. This being a man-made problem, it is just inexcuseable.″

Health warning signs have gone back up on the city rivers and beaches for a mandatory five-day period after previously only coming down on Thursday last week. Photo / Murray Robertson

Health warnings over the city’s water bodies had only been lifted Thursday of last week after being put in place following sewer discharge from Boxing Day’s heavy rainfall.

Water samples of the river were taken Tuesday morning and will be sent to a laboratory with results expected in 24 hours, according to the council.

Residents the Gisborne Herald spoke to on Tuesday morning were frustrated by the incident.

“How could someone be so thoughtless, dumb even,” one said.

Another called it “unbelievably stupid of someone”.

“We’ve just had a raw sewage incident caused by rain and now this at a time of year with so many visitors in town.”

The council said in its initial post that contractors checked a number of manholes in the area and found cut-up branches blocking a manhole in Dalrymple Rd.

“The network was coping with the recent heavy rain until the pipe got blocked with garden waste causing wastewater to back up and manholes to start popping up.”

A council spokesperson said there were many manholes on private properties.

“So we can’t check them all to find where it’s coming from.”

The section of blocked pipe runs between Stout St and Stanley Rd.

“Now this is a huge job to clear the pipe because it’s difficult to access.”

Fulton Hogan used sucker trucks at both ends of the pipe to clear the blockage but was unable to fix the issue on Monday night.

Stanley Rd footbridge in Gisborne had a pipe running over it as contractors worked to clear a sewer blockage on Tuesday. Photo / Murray Robertson

A special camera to help locate the exact blockage point was due to arrive at midday Monday.

“They continued [Tuesday] and have also used a special camera to help locate the exact site of the blockage,” the council spokesperson said.

“A shout out to the team for their awesome mahi.”

Meanwhile, a meeting was scheduled for Tuesday to formulate a plan to remove the latest driftwood debris build-up on the city beaches.

“If the weather patterns and swell look more settled, the plan is to clear in front of surf clubs later this week,” a council spokeswoman said.

A significant amount of debris has built up on the beaches again.