Seaview Wastewater Treatment Plant in Lower Hutt. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Residents in Lower Hutt say they are shutting themselves indoors to prevent becoming physically ill from yet another wave of putrid odours emanating from the beleaguered Seaview Wastewater Treatment Plant.
People took to social media over the weekend to complain of the smell of faeces and rotting eggs, with one person saying the smell made them "dry retch".
Others said they could smell the plant from nearly nine kilometres away at Fraser Park in Taitā.
The stench coming from the plant has been an ongoing problem for residents in the area.
Wave of putrid odors coming from Lower Hutt wastewater treatment plant
In just over six months - following the completion of work on the plant's biofilters to address the smell - Greater Wellington Regional Council received more than 300 complaints about the plant.
But there was a new problem causing the latest wave.
Wellington Water group manager of network management Jeremy McKibben said a fire in the plant's sludge dryer at the beginning of September followed by a mechanical fault led to a build-up of sludge in the facility that heightened the odour emanating from the plant.
"With the dryer being out of commission it means we have to take dewatered sludge in bins to the landfill," he said.
"The dryer itself was back up and running on Friday. There is a back log of sludge which will take us a couple of weeks to clear out but we expect the odour will improve over this week," McKibben said.
He acknowledged the community's frustration and that the last several weeks had "caused distress and been unpleasant" for residents.
"I can assure you we're doing all that we can to mitigate odour levels right now. We are trucking the dewatered sludge as well as dried sludge so we've got twice as much going out of the system to quickly bring it down," McKibben said.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The dryer was "at the end of its life" but would not be replaced until 2028, he said.
"That dryer is coming up to 25-years-old and like any asset that comes up to the end of its life, becomes less reliable so we're doing everything we can to make sure that we can keep that drier going as reliably as possible."
Over the next four years, parts of the dryer would be renewed proactively to keep it going, he said.
Danielle Wills lives on the cusp of suburbs Waiwhetu and Gracefield near the plant.
She is an organiser of the Stop The Stench community page and receives notifications from the agency about the plant.
She said the first acknowledgement there was a problem with the dryer came 11 days after the mechanical fault occurred - long after the smell had overwhelmed her neighbourhood.
"You just can't escape it unfortunately. It's an awful smell of poo that you can't get rid of. It's been very bad over the last week, absolutely gag-worthy.
"My 3-year-old said 'It smells of poo' and if she can smell it over her nappy, it's really bad. It's absolutely relentless," Wills said.
Knowing it would be four more years until the source of the stink was addressed further eroded her confidence in Wellington Water, she said.
"My child will go through her entire primary years smelling that smell," Wills said.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Sione Vakauta lives in Moera and takes his kids to school in nearby Gracefield. He said the smell was "strong to the point where you have to close up the house".
"We've got double glazing and it still seeps into the house. The minute you open the door you're hit with this acrid faecal smell.
"It's been there for years but in the last few weeks it's been really, really bad. It's not pleasant at all.
"I don't know how the kids get through it on a daily basis at school because they would be in the thick of it and having that waft over the school non-stop every day. It can't be healthy," Vakauta said.
The dryer reaching the end of its life could not have come to a surprise to anyone running the plant, he said.
"That shows the complete lack of forethought, of forward planning, of care of their resource consents.
"They've got a finite timeline on a dryer - they know this - it's upcoming. What have they done to make sure there's continuity in their resource consent and the smell doesn't escape their borders as its supposed to? Nothing.
"Where were you four years ago when they knew this was coming up? Why didn't you have that organised so when it goes end of life you replace it and you carry on as normal. It's just bad management," Vakauta said.
In August, Greater Wellington Regional Council threatened the two Hutt Valley councils and Wellington Water with legal action if it did not upgrade the plant's filters - another cause of the stench previously - by this Friday.