Dumping Sludge in the form of sewerage and waste water into Cook Strait is not only an environmental crime but reflected the capital city’s lack of priorities and mis-spending says the Council of Outdoor Recreation Associations of NZ (CORANZ).

CORANZ chairman Andi Cockroft of Wellington said according to reports Wellington City councillor Sean Rush suggested dumping one million litres of sludge per day into Cook Strait to save costs. The councillor reportedly blamed Covid-19 as a cause of the predicament and stated Wellington City Council needed to look at cost-saving measures.

But CORANZ chairman Andi Cockroft was not surprised and the Wellington City Council’s failure to front up to the problem.

“As a resident of this spendthrift Council, it comes as no surprise WCC suddenly finds itself facing problems of funding as other revenue sources dry up. Parking now provides zero income, other income from services such as refuse are much reduced,” he said.

Luxury Items

Yet money seemed to appear miraculously for projects such as artwork, roundabouts, cycle lane experiments, leisure centre and other “luxury”projects

Council was recently faced with repairing nearly century old drains beneath the City Centre. Primarily Wellington Water carried much of the blame for the urgent need, yet WW were relative new-comers having been formed as recently as 2014 said Andi Cockroft.

The apparent age of the infrastructure strongly suggested remedial work should have been undertaken perhaps even decades ago he added.

The latest problem with waste water and sewage spilling into coastal waters was no new.

“It’s being happening a long time, and no way forward other than fix on fail seems on the horizon,” said Andi Cockroft. “With an outflow pipe a mere 1.8km out into the Strait, as far as I can determine Wellington Water have a permit to pump 3,000 litres per second of “disinfected” slurry out to sea. It would take a good, fully independent ecologist to establish the true effects of this behaviour.”

Cavalier Approach

There were now obstacles to the failure resulting from city council inertia, among them procuring products from overseas.

Andi Cockroft said the blame for the environmental threat and crisis was simply due to the Wellington City Council.

“However, Sean Rush has the answer – let’s just pollute Cook Strait,” he said. “That irresponsible cavalier approach has to cease.”

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