Desludging work on Martinborough’s wastewater pond has finally started but there’s no update on when the town will permit new sewer connections.
South Wairarapa District Council (SWDC) will miss its May 2025 deadline for completing the desludging, and is now refusing to give any new time-frame for when the wastewater treatment system will be upgraded to a point where Martinborough can resume new connections.
It’s been two years since they stopped (12 May 2023) after SWDC and water company Wellington Water Limited (WWL) were forced by the regulator – Greater Wellington Regional Council – to act on their excessive pond sludge and halt noncompliant, polluting discharges to the Ruamahanga River.
In May 2023, Mayor Martin Connelly stated: “We hope to have the plant compliant within 24 months. We will pause new connections for only as long as needed.” Last year the regulator set SWDC and WWL a deadline of this 15 May to get the desludging done. Then, the council’s 2024 annual report (last 20 November) gave “around June 2025” as the expected completion time in respect of both the Martinborough and Greytown ponds.
In fact, the job was only put out to tender in September and the contract awarded in January to Glasgow Contractors, an Auckland-based firm experienced in stormwater pond desilting.
Work has started with a large “lay-down area” under construction through last month, within 6 hectares now used for irrigation of treated wastewater-to-land in summer.
The lay-down area will hold large filter bags of pumped-out sludge. Once drained, the remaining sediment can be carted away. Site signage tells the public the actual desludging will take 2-3 months, implying this first stage of wastewater system upgrade might be completed by August. But new sewer connections will not resume until sometime during a second stage of work required for the regulator.
Last month SWDC gave The Star prompt but minimal responses to questions on progress. It is now clear that desludging is only a first (yet important) step and no-one actually knows when Martinborough might regain sewerage “growth capacity” – new connections for properties.
Asked about time-frames and ongoing work, SWDC said: “The next stage is to enable stage 2A and 2B of our consent – which currently consists of piping waste to an area within the Pain Farm Estate for land treatment. This has been the subject of community attention and Council is reviewing its options. However, our immediate priority is to desludge the plants and make some operational improvements to get them back within legal compliance.
“Once stage 2 is activated, the discharge of a greater amount of treated wastewater to land will assist efforts to increase capacity. Other options to achieve growth as quickly as possible are being explored and are budgeted in the proposed 2025/34 Long-Term Plan.” In fact, pond desludging in Greytown — where new sewer connections stopped last July because of the same capacity constraints – has quietly been deferred from 2024-25 to future years with SWDC blaming this on “funding constraints.”
Progress on Martinborough might be uncertain but related outflow of ratepayers’ money is not.
The 2024-25 budget for the desludging and preparing for expanded land irrigation is $1.05 million. WWL’s routine report in March showed that $446,000 of this was spent in the first eight months and the annual outcome was expected to be over budget.
SWDC’s plan is for Martinborough to be discharging 100% of its treated wastewater onto land by 2041.
The system is currently deemed non-compliant with its resource consent which allows discharges to water (i.e. rivers) and land but only within tight limits.
