Hamilton City Council is apologising after a wastewater blockage resulted in a discharge into a Flagstaff stream.
The event involved a wastewater discharge into a tributary of the Te Awa O Katapaki Stream in October 2020.
On 12 October, a wastewater discharge was identified by Council Staff in the wastewater network beneath Delia Court in Flagstaff.
The discharge was the result of the blockage that had occurred in the Cumberland Drive wastewater pipe and HCC staff estimate up to 1272 m3 of wastewater was discharged into the stream over nine days.
Waikato Regional Council was notified of the incident and completed a formal investigation and subsequently laid a charge against Hamilton City Council under the Resource Management Act (RMA). Hamilton City Council pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.
“The Council recognises the importance of our waterways, and we take responsibility for managing the city’s water networks extremely seriously,” said Emily Botje, City Waters Unit Manager at Hamilton City Council.
“We regret the incident. We take full responsibility, and we apologise to the community.”
Hamilton City Council’s investigation found the blockage was caused by the build-up of fats, rags, and other materials clotted in a wastewater pipe. Some of those materials, including wipes, should not be flushed.
Council’s own investigation into the incident identified several areas for improvement. As a result, Council is:
- reviewing its response processes
- continuing to further improve processes around wastewater trend analysis
- investigating the use of new advances in network monitoring technologies
- providing more information to the community on what is and isn’t flushable, to minimise the risk of wastewater blockages occurring.