Auckland's Deputy Mayor fears lasting environmental problems as a result of the worst sewage spill she's seen in Tāmaki Makaurau.
It comes as Watercare revealed the extent of weather-related damage in Auckland, telling Newshub it's dealt with up to 30 sinkholes this year.
A concrete cannon is being used to secure a sinkhole where the earth imploded in Auckland. The pipe below collapsed, blocking the sewer and sending Parnell poo flowing into the Waitematā.
"This is really up there, this is pretty serious. It's major outfalls into the Waitematā [and] it will have an environmental impact. That's the biggest concern for me," said Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson.
Watercare says hundreds of litres of raw sewage are pouring into the Waitematā every second - that's thousands of litres per minute, hundreds of thousands per hour. A rough equation suggests that's 8,640,000 litres of leaking sewage every day.
"No one wants wastewater overflows going into a taonga of the Waitematā Harbour and we're all saddened by that. But no, I don't believe it can be avoided at all," said Watercare COO Mark Bourne.
The pipe is 113 years old but Watercare is adamant it was in good shape.
"The last time this asset was inspected in this location was 2019. [It] was in good condition. Because it was in good condition it's on a five-year repeat cycle for condition assessment. So at that time there was no issues," Bourne said.
His "working assumption" is bad weather is to blame, revealing Watercare has dealt with 25-30 sinkholes out of nearly 200 incidents linked to the Auckland storms.
"I think probably in the broader context this is one of 199 incidents that have occurred in the system directly as a result of the flooding and storm events earlier this year. And I think the total resolution of that is going to be adding up the tens of millions of dollars," Bourne said.
Watercare desperately needs the weather to hold as it embarks on a 10-day job to try and stem the flow into the harbour.
There are two options - installing a bypass or clearing a blockage that lies 13 metres below the surface. The Deputy Mayor said she's never seen anything like it.
"We can fix infrastructure. At the end of the day what's happened with this particular situation, is it's not affecting people's ability to flush the toilets, or to use water, or whatever. But what it is affecting is the Waitematā and we have these flows that are going into the harbour, there is no fishing, no swimming and that will have potentially some long-term effects," Simpson said.
A serious, stinky mess that could have repercussions that are a lot bigger than just a hole in the ground.
