Dispensation sought to halt sewage

Press, 4 January 1988, Page 4

Dispensation sought to halt sewage

PA Auckland Raw sewage poured into Tamaki Estuary for about four hours yesterday while Auckland Regional Authority officials sought union dispensation for striking electricians to fix a pumping station fault. The fault in the Dunkirk station at Mount Wellington War Memorial Reserve would have been fixed before an overflow occurred if electrical maintenance workers had not been out on strike, the “Auckland Sun” reported. The chairman of the A.R.A. works committee, Mr Gary Taylor, said he was not impressed by the efficiency of the union dispensation procedure,

although it would have been much worse if none had been granted. Sewage would then have flowed unchecked for the duration of the strike. “It’s a case of beggars not being able to be choosers but, really, any pollution of the harbour under any circumstances whatsoever I find unacceptable, and so does the community,” he said. The sewage flowed into a creek beside the pumping station at a rate of four to five litres a second from about 11 a.m. — when the emergency holding tanks overflowed — until the electrical fault was repaired . just before 3 p.m. A recognisable trail of

toilet paper and other unpleasant items extended along the creek bed and across the tidal flats to the estuary. The creek was only about 50m from Ridgeways Circus in the reserve. The chief drainage engineer for the A.R.A., Mr Neil Harper, said the fault occurred about 8 a.m. A fitter was sent to check for a mechanical fault in the pumps, after which Mr Harper contacted the secretary of the Electrical Workers' Union, Mr John Fisher, for permission to call in an electrician. The electrician, who did not want to be named, said he was called about 12.45 p.m. He would normally have been first on the scene.