Seaview Wastewater Treatment Plant. File photo. Photo: Google Maps
Odours from the city's Seaview Wastewater Treatment Plant are worse than ever before despite recent upgrades to improve the smells, a Lower Hutt resident claims.
Just before Christmas, biofilter work was finished ahead of schedule. It followed 111 complaints about the facility's smell between 31 October and 12 December.
The complaints triggered the Greater Wellington Regional Council to investigate, resulting in more than $40,000 worth of fines to be dished out to the facility's owners.
Greater Wellington Regional Council said it had received a further 50 complaints since the biofilter was finished.
Nearby resident and Stop the Stench group member Dr Kylie Hood said lately the smell was the worst it had ever been.
"It's just very strong sewage smell and that combined with the heat at the moment has made it really unbearable for some local residents.
"It's so hot but you can't open your doors and windows."
The group had been continuing to file complaints to the regional council over the issue following the biofilter being installed, Hood said.
"Even though it takes quite a while to lodge the complaint, we keep doing that so that there's a record of the impact the smell is having on the community."
But, fellow Stop the Stench member and homeowner, Robert Wills said he had noticed a difference recently.
"There has been days where there has been no smell at all and subsequent days where unexpectedly we get a strong whiff of ... well odours that aren't pleasant."
He is keeping a close eye on how the plant changes improve the area.
"I'll give the Wellington Water and Hutt City Council their four to six weeks for the biofilter to bed in and see how it performs after that."
Hutt South MP and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop lives near the plant and said the biofilter had made some difference.
"On some days it's really bad on other days you can't really smell it at all, it's bedding in now and so hopefully over the next few weeks we'll see a real improvement."
He said he would be urging the Upper Hutt and Hutt City councils to continue upgrading the plant.
"Residents of Lower Hutt should not have to live surrounded by the smell of poo basically, on a near daily basis and I think that's just got to be the bottom line."
Bishop said it reflects the wider state of infrastructure.
"This all speaks to a legacy that we are inheriting as a new government of underinvestment in water infrastructure over many years."
Wellington Water said the biofilter was the first step to improving odour at the Seaview Treatment Plant.
To address the long-term issue, it said Hutt City Council had included proposed upgrades and improvements in the draft Long-Term Plan worth $13 million.
The water provider said since the biofilter replacement works were completed, there had been a noticeable difference in the smell.