Whangarei man pulls 25 bags of rubbish from Otaika Creek

Some of the rubbish bags Con Fowler pulled from the Otaika Creek near his home. Photo/Supplied

"What sort of horrible ratbags would do this?"

That was the question Con Fowler asked himself after hauling 25 full rubbish bags out of the Otaika Creek near his Whangarei home.

Mr Fowler has a jetty on his property near the Portland turnoff south of Whangarei. He was down at the creek at sunset on Sunday when he spotted a yellow plastic bag floating in the water.

"I jumped in to get the yellow plastic bag and there was a big black plastic bag floating behind it."

He looked around and noticed more black bags. That night he pulled 10 bags out. He returned the next morning and pulled another 10 out. On Tuesday, he found five more.

"I was quite angry. You'd think these days people would be more socially responsible."

Mr Fowler said there was about three months worth of household rubbish in the bags.

"These people show no respect for our harbour or city."

Mr Fowler used a dinghy to get the bags out of the water. It was hard work lifting them into the dinghy because they had partially filled with water and were heavy.

Some of the bags had split open and there were nappies, plastic bottles, Christmas decorations, rotten food and plastic wrappers floating everywhere.

Mr Fowler has lived at his property near the intersection of State Highway 1 with Loop Rd and the Portland turnoff for 25 years and has never seen anything like this. He believes the rubbish came from somewhere upstream of the Loop Rd bridge near SH1.

A Northland Regional Council staff member met Mr Fowler on Tuesday, and the pair looked through the rubbish and found an item with an address on it. The rubbish was loaded into a truck and taken to the dump. NRC is investigating the illegal dumping.

Whangarei District Council waste and drainage field officer Grant Alsop said council's contractor has pulled shopping trolleys or road cones from waterways, but not usually rubbish bags.

Mr Alsop said it was frustrating, and shows the mindset of some people.

"They don't care about polluting our waterways and the surrounding environment."

It was the first time he had heard of rubbish being found in this particular spot, and the first he had heard of this volume of rubbish in a waterway.

Mr Alsop said if NRC were unable to issue the infringement then WDC would.

He said people whose names are found in rubbish dumped illegally receive a $400 fine.

Illegal dumping has been a major issue for Whangarei District Council in recent years, with the council spending about $200,000 in the past financial year cleaning up illegal dump sites.