Frustration over the time it has taken to get work under way fixing the sewerage issues affecting both Martinborough and Greytown waste water systems bubbled to the surface when council members discussed them last month. “This project has been glacially slow (though) Wellington Water (the council’s water services contractor) pushed back and argued it had not been,” councillor Aidan Ellims told the council’s Strategy Working Committee.
“It is fair to say councillors share the disappointment around this (council meeting) table at the length of time it has taken to have this work done.”
Both council members and staff had “been pushing it” with Wellington Water Ltd.
The comments came as councillors sought a timeframe for work on desludging the waste water/sewerage ponds in both Martinborough and Greytown – starting in Martinborough.
“The length of time the procurement process has taken within Wellington Water has been incredibly long and all the way through that the council has pushed at every level to have things done faster,” senior manager Stefan Corbett said.
Asked about the timeframe for carrying out and completing the project, once the contract was “in place … the work doesn’t take long at all,” Corbett said. Previously the council said it planned to complete the work by July 2025. The issue arose in August 2022 when Wellington Regional Council, as regulator, issued an abatement notice for non-compliant discharges of wastewater to land and water.
The treatment plant’s upgrade plan includes pond desludging, new inlet works, a new outlet pump station and UV system, development of a second irrigation site and other “ancillary” works.
Pond de-sludging is a key next step and will allow the pond treatment process to operate within standard design and operating criteria, but de-sludging doesn’t provide capacity for additional connections.
“A second stage of work to increase capacity will take several years to deliver,” the 2023 report noted. Later, a 2031 date for completing the upgrade was indicated. Wellington Water said in 2023 that the regional council should not approve new connections to the Martinborough wastewater network until the Martinborough treatment plant is compliant and a plan is in place to provide sufficient treatment capacity.
