Relief at removal of old Orewa pipeline

This section of wastwater pipe had to be removed before it could become a hazard to boaties. Photo / Kenny Rodger

A relic from the days when Orewa's waste plant discharged 500m off its popular swimming beach surfaced yesterday, with the aid of a team of divers and a hydraulic digger.

The recovery of part of the old treatment ponds' sea outfall was greeted on the beach with applause and relief.

Nine days ago, work began in the tidal rip of an estuary mouth to free from the seabed and float a 180m section of pipeline that over 38 years had deteriorated and split.

Rodney Deputy Mayor John Kirikiri happily watched the beaching of the first piece of pipe, saying it had to be removed before it became a hazard to boaties.

The outfall had not been used since last year, when Orewa's waste was instead piped over land to a new treatment plant at the end of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula.

GHD project manager Graeme Salmon said the Monitoring Technologies dive team cut the damaged section of pipeline and removed its anchoring system before strapping it to a barge. This lifted the 20-tonne pipe from the muddy sea floor with the tide.

The rest of the pipeline had been deemed safe to leave buried in the estuary and seabed.

For years, the end of the outfall has been marked by a pole, although its resource consent permitted a discharge only when it was dark and the tide was going out. The pole is to remain as a landmark.