INDEPENDENT NEWS

Stop the crap and save Doubtless Bay

Published: Fri 3 Oct 2008 03:11 PM
Stop the crap and save Doubtless Bay


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Polluted water from the wetland entering unnamed tributary which ultimately ends up in the Parapara Stream.


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Treated sewage outlet showing meter in the middle (with wire running out of it) and the leaking flange.
3 October 2008
Stop the crap and save Doubtless Bay
Green Party Co-leader Russel Norman is supporting calls by Ngati Tara for the Far North District Council to rethink plans to increase the amount of treated human sewerage going into Doubtless Bay via the Parapara Stream.
"When I visited Parapara Stream this week I could clearly see that the water coming out at the end of the sewage treatment process was highly discoloured and changed the colour of the tributary of the Parapara Stream into which the effluent was discharging," Dr Norman says.
The Greens are calling on Mayor Wayne Brown and his council to fully investigate land-based disposal for the effluent coming out of the Taipa sewage treatment plant.
"Doubtless Bay is such a beautiful and important part of the far north. It is of tremendous cultural significance to local iwi and has historically been an important source of kaimoana for the people of the region.
"The FNDC's application to increase the amount of treated human effluent going into Parapara Stream from one million litres per day to one and a half million litres per day and to extend the resource consent on the old sewage scheme for another 25 years is unacceptable. Land based alternatives received limited consideration in the FNDC's application."
Dr Norman spent Wednesday morning in and around Taipa looking at the treatment plant with members of Ngati Tara. They explained how the treated effluent passes down Parapara Stream before being discharged into Doubtless Bay at Aurere Beach.
"The collecting of mussels and other kaimoana from Aurere Beach has now become impossible for Ngati Tara because of the treated human sewage discharge. And for all the people of Doubtless Bay the increasing nutrient and sediment flows into the bay both from agricultural activities and sewage treatment plants are polluting the bay and undermining the bay's ability to provide people with a feed of mussels or fish.
"Moreover the water meter meant to measure the volume of effluent coming out of the treatment plant was clearly malfunctioning and a significant amount of flow was not passing through the water meter. This means that whatever figures the council has as to the volume of flow coming out of the plant are clearly wrong and underreporting the true flow (see photos attached).
"I call on Mayor Brown and the FNDC to stop pouring money into think big plans like the Bay of Islands mega sewerage scheme and to fix up the existing treatment plants in places like Taipa and Omapere on the Hokianga Harbour which I visited two weeks ago."
ENDS

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