KEY POINTS:
Contaminated water at an Auckland beach resort and tourism icon is a significant risk to the public, say health officials.
Auckland Regional Public Health Service says mass failure of household
septic tank systems in Muriwai township is an immediate threat to 2000
residents and to the one million visitors who come each year for the gannet colony and surf beach.
The service has called for urgent and longer term remedies in response to the results of a new investigation by Rodney District Council.
John Whitmore, of the service, said the solution was either to alter the
volume/quality of effluent to match the capacity of individual sites or to look at a reticulated treatment system for the community.
"There's no quick, simple or cheap solution to effluent disposal at Muriwai."
Council consultants found year-round excessive contamination from human
waste in drains that pour on to the beach.
The Harrison Grierson consultancy estimated that only 10 per cent of the
town's 450 household disposal systems could meet a safe environmental standard.
Although the council says the sea is safe for swimmers, long-time resident Anna Mason says children could become sick after playing in the pools of foul water below stormwater pipes.
"The report shows we are living on a time bomb," said Mrs Mason. "It's an absolute disgrace and a scandal for a tourist icon. The situation calls for government funding."
Mrs Mason said the township, only 30 minutes from central Auckland, had
changed from being a sprinkling of holiday and retirement baches.
Septic tanks were adequate for them but there were now streets of
substantial homes with permanent residents.
Councils can obtain a court order to close down any dwelling if it is a health risk.
Rodney officials are trying to get the worst examples of effluent seepage cleaned up. But the investigation shows three out of four houses are too big to allow proper waste disposal on their slow-draining, clay soil sections.
District councillor Suzanne Weld said even some disposal systems
installed two years ago were not working properly.
Closing the beach because of the health risk and imposing a moratorium on new building were possible responses if the council's remedial plans
failed.
One proposal before the council is to require all new building and additions to apply to the Auckland Regional Council for a discharge consent. Consent can be withdrawn if it is shown it could cause
contamination to surface water, drains, neighbouring property or be a public health threat.
An alternative - to build a $9 million municipal wastewater treatment plant to serve existing and future buildings - cannot happen for about six years. In the meantime, people who had improved their home disposal system would be reluctant to shell out again for joining a municipal
scheme.
Ms Weld said the council wanted ARC help to find a plant site on regional park land.
The plant could also serve ARC park and campground facilities and
feed treated water into the golf course's irrigation system.
A meeting with ARC chairman Mike Lee was arranged for next month.
Ms Weld said Muriwai was rejected for the Government's sanitary works subsidy scheme because it rated low in the deprivation index.
"We are hoping to invite Prime Minister John Key, who is the local MP and Tourism Minister, out to Muriwai to plead a special case for funding as a tourist destination."
ARC group manager for parks operations Mace Ward said park facilities
and campground waste disposal systems had been upgraded and resource
consent had 15 years to run.
POLLUTION TIME BOMB
Most household septic tanks leak human waste.
Fouling of water deemed public health risk.
Residents complain of smell and effluent runoff.
Council promises crackdown on failing disposal systems.
Calls for special case for treatment plant subsidy.
