Waikato District Council has been formally charged in relation to June’s overflow of partially treated wastewater into Raglan Harbour. This is the first action of this type taken by Waikato Regional Council under its new CEO Vaughan Payne and may signal a tougher approach by the Regional Council and one more in touch with Maori values. Mr Payne commenting on his joint Māori-Pakeha heritage, and his work experience in both rural and urban communities, said, “I believe Māori and Pakeha essentially have the same values but they can place different priorities on those values with, for example, their approach to fresh water management. I think my bicultural ancestry and upbringing, plus my work experience, helps me appreciate a wide range of different perspectives.”
Following the incident, Waikato Regional Council completed a full investigation and as a result, a single charge of discharging a contaminant into the environment under the Resource Management Act 1991 has been filed in the Hamilton District Court. Around 5 million litres of partially treated waste water entered a tributary of the Raglan Harbour. A number of factors contributed to the overflow including the failure of the discharge pumps to start operating and a lack of telemetry alarms in the event of a pump failure.
Earlier in 2013, the Raglan Community Board (RCB) asked for a full report on the spill. At its December meeting Board members reminded Council staff that they were still waiting for the report. Board member Bob MacLeod said, “Governance – is the need for members of a governing body (RCB) to have the courage to keep asking questions until they understand what they are deciding, and the benefits of formal processes and records to support decision-making is the goal however when one is in the dark one can not be in a position of governance?”
Waikato District Council Chief Executive Gavin Ion says “This was an extremely regrettable incident and we have given the investigators our full co-operation to ensure this matter is addressed in an appropriate manner”.
“At this stage the timing of court proceedings isn’t known however it is likely to take place in the new year.”
Waikato District Council General Manager Service Delivery Tim Harty said after the incident that several areas had been found where improvements needed to be made to avoid similar incidents in the future. Mr Ion says that since then a number of additional safety measures and processes were put in place at the Raglan wastewater treatment plant including a significant upgrade of the site’s monitoring system.
“We’re obviously very disappointed this incident occurred so we want to ensure our wastewater systems are as robust as possible for the future.”
After the spill incident, Councillors learned that the monitoring system upgrade they had approved a year earlier, had not been implemented.