After the coastal flooding and power failure at Raglan on 5th January, council contractors pumped out the holding tanks at several of Raglan’s waste water pumping stations including the one at Lorenzen Bay Road.
Signs have now been erected warning against swimming or taking shellfish at Lorenzen Bay.
Raglan 23 posed questions to Waikato District Council about this (in blue italics below).
Waikato Dsitrict Council’s Acting Waters Manager Karl Pavlovich answered our questions (in black below).
Did a waste water spill into the harbour occur at any of Raglan’s waste water pumping stations or the treatment plant on the 5th, 6th, 7th January?
If there was a leakage how much waste water leaked into the harbour at each waste water pump site?
No wastewater spill occurred at the Lorenzen Bay wastewater pump station despite the fact that it was submerged for about an hour due to the king high tide on 5 January.
The Wainui Road pump station was also inundated with sea water and suffered damage to the pump control system resulting in a loss of power to the pumps.
At the time of flooding, the pump station contained 0.9 of a cubic metre of wastewater. The total volume of the pump well is 9 cubic metres.
The station lost power for approximately one hour while full with the diluted wastewater-sea water mixture.
The service person in attendance estimated that once the king tide subsided approximately 0.5 cubic metres (500 litres) was discharged from that pump station before the vacuum truck arrived.
There were no other leakages at any other pump stations.
The proactive measure of sending vacuum trucks to pump out the tanks at wastewater pump stations on Friday afternoon, and the use of generators during the power cuts, certainly contributed to the fact that only a minimal amount of diluted wastewater-sea water mixture leaked out of Wainui Rd wastewater pump station
If a spill did not occur are the warning signs erected by council precautionary?
The signs were put up as a precautionary measure following discussion with the Waikato District Health Board.
What parts of Raglan are off limits for swimming and shellfish gathering?
After further discussions with Waikato District Health Board and further investigation, it has been established that there is only a minimal risk to public health after the weekend’s weather.
The signs are being taken down today so there are no areas of Raglan that are off limits for swimming and shellfish gathering at this time.
How long is the ban likely to be in place?
As mentioned earlier, there is no longer a ban in place.