01/09/2026
Watercare, protectors of the environment! Who would've thought that in the space of a year we've gone from copious amounts of wastewater overflows in just 10mm of rain to having none after an 80mm rain over the weekend. That is amazing progress for the environment, the community and our oysters.
Unfortunately Warkworth town is now being constricted in its access as the big poo pipe gets laid down through it, hurting businesses and activities. Warkworth's wastewater and stormwater pipes are very old, Rodney Council maintained them just enough but when Auckland Council came along their planning and expansion of the area grew out of pace with the infrastructure to cater for it. Watercare was left to deal with the issues this caused, building a new treatment plant, new pump stations to service the growth, not just what had been grown but the huge growth that is to come. The tricky part of threading the poomungus pipe through the town was problematic, originally it was complete closures of roads, open trenching but the town did well to lobby and Watercare did surprisingly listen and have tried to do as much trenchless digging as possible. Ideas such as going under the boardwalk by the river or across the river weren't feasible due to the lack of fall and to pump would've cost millions more in pump stations we've been told.
I feel very sorry for the local businesses affected by this work. Recently there have been a few social media comments that have said if Matakana Oysters got $1 million dollars in compensation (which is incorrect), why don't the shops get any? As an oyster association, we got around $2 million which was shared in proportion of size and stock amounts between 8 oyster companies. I got around $200,000 of which the majority was gobbled up by IRD, ACC and other debts that I had not been able to pay due to being closed for months over years thanks to the overflows. This compensation was ONLY for the one dry weather spill, end of October when their new Lucy Moore pump station didn't raise the alarm as it was overflowing causing us to close for a month and was via Watercare's insurance. So why don't the shops get compensated? Watercare and Auckland Council have consents to dig up roads, pathways, areas they see fit for infrastructure purposes. They also write consents between them to allow sewage overflows in wet weather events. To pay us for those many events, even though they completely wrecked our growing areas was never going to happen as that would've led to a precedent being set for all businesses affected by their daily activities. Imagine all the businesses affected around the region that would've expected the same, the hundreds destroyed by the light city rail. Both Watercare and the Council would be broke. The dry weather event that led to our saving with compensation was because they did not have consent to spill that much when rain is not involved. We were lucky after years of being unlucky and it came from Watercare's insurance. I wish the businesses could get some relief but I don't know how that can happen sadly.
I will always find it hypocritical that any other industry, household, septic tank users, farmers that has any wastewater runoff hitting the waterways is instantly fined and prosecuted but the council can issue legalised pollution in the guise of trying to catch up to it's own growth mess and decades of under investment. Maybe there will be a government one day that has the nutsacks to implement the recommendations by the royal commission study that was done when the Auckland Unitary Council was formulated, to have an independent regulator to watch over the Council and it's so called Council Controlled Organisations...to keep them in check. I won't hold my breath.
The Mahurangi's reputation is in tatters, the personal toll it has taken on me and the other farmers is huge. My little shop has been very quiet this year, people are struggling to afford the necessities with fuel, energy and food costs spiralling out of control. Sometimes I see folk who use to come in to buy oysters regularly and they look away in embarrassment as if they are sorry but they don't trust anymore, I understand their concern despite how clean the harbour is now, not even receiving treated sewage, the s**t sticks. I'm just grateful to be open this year at all.
During the rain on Saturday I could feel my post sewage traumatic stress disorder jangling away, you can't eat, you can't sleep all you can do is hope. Watercare deserve credit for managing to have kept the overflows from spilling in such a rain event. They're putting a lot of resources into the town, fixing the mistakes of the recent past and for that we are very thankful.
I hope the town businesses can hang in there for the time in the not too distant future when thousands of people will be living in the area and hopefully visiting their shops...once the hills get sculptured into another suburban Silverdale. Let's hope the powers that be have planned the necessary schools, emergency services and community institutions for such growth...was that what the people wanted in the area? I'll save that rant for another day, I feel everyone should try to make an effort to use the local shops in the meantime to help them survive also.
