Mahurangi oyster farmers are struggling to stay in business. Photo: Nick Monro
Oyster farmers north of Auckland are hoping Fisheries Minister Shane Jones will help save their industry, after a meeting over the weekend.
For years, contamination from sewage overflows has cut production, with many Mahurangi oyster farmers struggling to stay in business.
Watercare is spending $450 million on a new wastewater programme that will stop most overflows, but that is years away from completion.
A pipe upgrade designed to reduce the overflows is in place but many growers have not been able to harvest since December last year.
They met with Fisheries Minister Shane Jones on Sunday. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
Oyster grower Dave Morgan told Morning Report his business lost $100,000 last year and stands to lose nearly half a billion this financial year.
"We should be in the middle of our season now, I've done one harvest since last December which means so far I've lost $300,000 or $400,000. A slight ray of hope is that we were open for a couple of days last week."
Ten marine farms have been in a seven-year battle with Watercare to stop sewage overflowing into the Mahurangi Harbour, which contaminates their oyster crops.
They met with Jones on Sunday.
"We gave him a rundown of our local industry, what it means to the area. He was asking plenty of questions and you could see his mind was going around on how he could find a way to help us," Morgan said.
"He is going to go back and pull some levers... it's going to be more talking and putting pressure on Watercare.
"Us little guys, the oyster farmers, find it very hard to put any pressure on a monster organisation like Watercare but the minister indicated that he would."
Oyster farmers in the Warkworth area, north of Auckland, fear their businesses won't survive the year. Photo: Supplied
Morgan said some growers had relocated some of their oyster stock to fresh water and they have asked Jones to put pressure on Watercare to pick up that cost.
"I believe he sincerely felt our plight."
Jones said his officials had met with Watercare and he now wanted to meet with the agency to discuss the farmers' situation.
"Their economic circumstances are very dire. Watercare has dodged and weaved and evaded any responsibility, obviously there's more we need to do with Watercare and my officials have been talking to them but I'm going to seek direct contact with them," he said.
Watercare had a target of two wet weather sewage overflows a year at its Elizabeth Street site in Warkworth but its consent allowed 20.5 discharges - and that has outraged the oyster growers.
Jones said allowing that many sewage overflows was unacceptable.
"The bottom line is that property development has spread around Warkworth, infrastructure hasn't kept up but Watercare themselves have arrogated an entitlement to themselves to pollute at will," he said.
"If a farmer or someone else spreads tutai [faeces] into the creek or river they're immediately charged and it seems that Watercare has made an art form sadly out of the poor management of the discharge points around the river and it's polluted the harbour and driven these people to the brink."
He said it appeared to be environmental mismanagement.
"I don't think the public realise how large the entitlement is that Watercare are employing to pollute at will," Jones said.
"Watercare either has an agenda to drive them out of the harbour or believe because this is a relatively small group of individual men and women who have their livelihood and all of their resources tied up in this business that they can monster them, well Watercare if that is their view they've found a bigger bully in the form of myself."
Watercare chief executive Jamie Sinclair said construction on the long term fix was due to begin next year.
In the meantime, he said the interim upgrade at Elizabeth Street was preventing overflows in low to moderate rainfall.
"Over the wet Saturday and Sunday we've just had, we were pleased to see there were no overflows to the Mahurangi River," Sinclair said.
"This interim upgrade will provide further benefits when the downstream infrastructure - our new pump station, transfer pipeline and Snells Beach Wastewater Treatment Plant - go into service. This will be staged as part of the commissioning process, with the new infrastructure starting to take partial flows from Warkworth this week."
Sinclair said Watercare had contributed $200,000 to Aquaculture New Zealand to support business recovery initiatives through grants for Mahurangi oyster farmers.
"These grants are distributed by Aquaculture New Zealand and can be used to fund the relocation of oysters, the replacement of sticks used for farming, activities to support spat to grow, or wellbeing support."
He said that was on top of the $50,000 contribution Watercare initially made to provide wellbeing support, via Aquaculture New Zealand and FirstMate.
"We're pleased to hear the oyster farmers are now able to begin harvesting again. We will continue to keep Aquaculture New Zealand and the oyster farmers updated as we make progress with the long-term solution to overflows in the Mahurangi River."
Watercare has maintained it is being compliant in Warkworth.
"Watercare is permitted to discharge wastewater at the Elizabeth Street overflow site under the Regional Network Discharge Consent, which allows for an average of 20.5 wet weather discharges per year (based on a five-year rolling average)," a spokesperson earlier said.
"Watercare remains compliant with the consent. This reflects that we are on a journey to reduce overflows to an average of two or less per year at Elizabeth Street by investing in new infrastructure."
Watercare said it has revised the programme for Warkworth's new $450 million wastewater programme to allow it to put the critical section in service late next year, instead of the original planned completion of 2028.
"This will almost eliminate overflows to the Mahurangi River. Changing the programme does come at additional cost - an extra $2.5 million - but we consider it money well spent to protect the river and support the local oyster farming industry," its spokesperson said.
Jones said he would find out if there was any action the Crown could take to alleviate the financial pressure on the oyster farmers.
New Zealand First MP Jenny Marcroft is based in Mahurangi and said the permanent fix of the Snell's Beach pump station needs to be completed earlier because the farmers won't survive another season with ongoing spills.
She said Watercare needs to step up with more financial assistance for the oyster growers.
Many oyster growers have not been able to harvest since December last year. Photo: Nick Monro
Watercare's ageing Auckland network
Meanwhile, Watercare is spending half a billion dollars to patch up Auckland's ageing water infrastructure over the next 18 months.
More than two thirds of the money is being spent on leaky pipes and small assets, and the rest on treatment plants.
Watercare chief executive Jamie Sinclair said fixes will be made to some of the 9000 kilometres of local network water pipes.
"We're actively talking to Auckland Transport in terms of their programme to try and minimise disruption for those communities, get in and out as quickly as we can to reduce those leaks and those overflows that we're experiencing at the moment in some areas of Auckland."
Local Government Minister Simon Watts said the Watercare Charter will save households nearly $900 million over four years while also guaranteeing improved service quality and record infrastructure investment.
"This arrangement gives Watercare additional finance for investment in Auckland's water infrastructure while keeping water charges lower than previously forecasted. It will mean Aucklanders can keep more money in their household budgets, allowing them to spend on other essential expenses such as groceries and healthcare."
Watts said the investment for maintenance and upgrades is a 44 percent increase, compared to the spend in the 18-month period leading up to July this year.
Watercare would complete most of the work but $75 million worth of contracts for water and wastewater pipe replacements are expected to go out to public tender before Christmas.
