‘Four more years of stench’ makes an attention-grabbing headline but it’s misleading in terms of the messages delivered at this week’s public meeting on the Seaview sewage treatment plant.

It wrongly gives the impression we’re stuck with the current level of stink for the foreseeable future.  In fact, there are grounds for optimism that odour improvements might only be a month or two away as moves to get complicated systems that govern what is a live biological process back into balance.

What has to be admitted – and was admitted by Wellington Water and contracted plant operated Veolia at the meeting – is that even as upgrades costing tens of millions of dollars are pursued, no-one can guarantee there won’t be repeated spells of the present nauseating smell.

Mayor Campbell Barry was upfront with the 25 or so community members who turned up to the November 25^th meeting, several of whom were in tears over their utter frustration with the ongoing problems at the Seaview plant.

The mayor said the current levels of stench were “totally unacceptable” and far below the level of service residents and ratepayers deserved.

There’s $225 million in Hutt City Council’s 10-year plan for wastewater issues, and dealing with the Seaview plant odour is the city’s top priority.  Replacing significant components of the plant are being front-loaded into the first three or four years of the Long-Term Plan.

The wastewater treatment issues stem from ageing parts and infrastructure, and are a symptom of what we’re seeing with 3 waters networks not just in the Hutt, but up and down the country, Mayor Barry said.

As several of the residents pointed out, smells from the plant have been ongoing for years.  But they’ve been much worse this year.

A number of them said the odour neutraliser spray “blasters” brought in to try to combat the stink are making things worse.  As well as the smell of s***, the blasters added a very unpleasant chemical tang, they said.

While the neutralisers are considered ‘industry best practice’, it was agreed at the meeting there should be trials – with plenty of community warning and monitoring – of switching off the blasters, and gauging the community’s reaction.

What’s going wrong?

A project to replace media in six biofilter cells turned out to be much more complicated and fraught than envisaged.  They had to be done all at once because no system was in place to allow them to be done one by one.

There is now a new air distribution system associated with the biofilter cells, and new isolation valves.

Next planned stages are to improve the capture of odours not currently reaching the biofilter for treatment.  So that’s new odour treatment in the milliscreening building, replacing the milliscreen ducting, and fixing external leaks in external odour ducting at the plant.

Further disruption – and stench – resulted from two small fires in the plant’s sludge dryer – incidents Wellington Water admitted at this month’s meeting occurred because plant staff did not follow process guidelines.  The dryer was offline for nine days, but was then taken out again by a component failure. 

There was also a failure in a primary settling tank.

Tens of thousands of tonnes of de-watered sludge have had to be trucked to Silverstream landfill while the dryer was fixed.  It added to odour issues.

Full descriptions of planned upgrades can be found here.  

Too slow

Pat Dougherty, Wellington Water’s (WWL) new chief executive, told the meeting maximum focus is being given to getting the plant’s processes back in balance.

He admitted WWL and Veolia had been too slow to detect that various components at the plant were wearing out faster than anticipated. 

WWL is building its asset management capacity and there is much closer scrutiny of components.

He spoke of changing the relationship between WWL and Veolia (an international company that runs all of Wellington region’s sewage treatment plants) as one of emphasising preservation of a good working relationship to one with “more tension” over contracts.

Mr Dougherty didn’t say it, but reading between the lines that could be translated as Veolia has been given a rocket to lift their game.  Additional experience staff are being brought in;  others are being upskilled.

As upgrading work continues around the plant, there were repeated assurances a key consideration at each stage would be the impact on odours beyond the plant boundaries.

One large upcoming expense is a new sludge dryer, with a price tag of around $92m.  It’s to be built on adjacent land currently used as a car lot, and with sea level rise in mind.  Upgrades to at least one sub-station will be needed so that it can operate on electricity, rather than expensive – and climate emissions-unfriendly – gas.

While Mr Dougherty said money was not the issue – the Hutt and Upper Hutt councils were fronting with the funding that’s needed – there is significant concern about the workforce.  There is a global shortage of specialist expertise in the wastewater sector.

His final word at the public meeting was to implore councils and the Government to get on with the move to new 3 waters infrastructure companies under Local Water Done Well.

“We need to make decisions fast or we’ll lose workforce.”

Are the ways we’ve done things in the past, and the facilities we maintain, fit for purpose and cost-effective going forward?

That’s a question Hutt City Council is asking itself on a number of fronts in an effort to keep a lid on rates rises. 

Everyone, including councillors, winced at the eye-watering 16.9% rates increase this year.  The cost pressures forcing that – failing infrastructure, debt interest, rising contractor/staff, insurance and material costs – haven’t gone away.

To try and lighten the rates burden on households and businesses, and squeeze maximum bang for buck, we need to look at doing things differently – maybe even reducing service expectations.

That’s why we teamed up with Maungaraki School to run a joint school/community library.  In Eastbourne, volunteers have come on board to enable us to extend the season of the Bays’ summer pool.

Other examples that illustrate some of the thinking going on are a reassessment of council’s ‘built assets’ – halls (5), buildings leased to community groups (14), community houses (6), hubs/libraries (8), toilets and changing rooms (40), wharves/jetties and boat ramps (7), pool complexes (6) and 60-70 other buildings/facilities – and the option of “low mow” reserves.

For built assets, a review of asset management plans shows $81.3 million of maintenance and renewal costs in the next decade, but only $50.1m budgeted.  (Note, the figures include $24m for Petone Wharf, when we’re now aiming to tackle that for a maximum of $12m.)

In short, we can’t afford to keep and maintain all that we have.

Councillors have resolved to open up discussions with residents on what should be the priorities, guided by such things as equity of access, existing rates of use, future need, etc.

There is demand from new groups and new activities, but we can’t build more facilities, so we want to optimise the ones we have by encouraging sharing and hubbing (this might mean revisiting some historic arrangements). 

We are increasing fees for using them so it’s a fair balance between ratepayers and the people getting the benefit from them; and we are open to conversations on divestment to community groups, where groups can show they can manage the cost.

Divestment consultations are already underway over Belmont’s Hardwick-Smith Lounge and the Gibbes Watson and Tutukiwi conservatories in the civic gardens.

These are difficult conversations to have, but as we’ve learned with our water pipes, kicking the can down the road just makes the costs and consequences worse.

Easing pressure on rates should also come from ‘low mow’. 

Low-mow meadows are a lower cost way to manage green spaces that are insect-friendly, have environmental benefits, and provide a more natural feel.

Instead of mowing on a fortnightly rotation the grass is left to grow over spring and summer.

Other councils have used this approach with success and we’re going to trial it from November on a 700m2 area of grass near Waione Bridge.

Mowing this area currently costs ratepayers around $1,000 per month but low mow will reduce the area that needs mowing by about 75%.  

If it’s successful, council will extend low mow to other locations in 2025, cutting the cost of Parks & Reserves maintenance contracts in the future.