Wastewater flowed into city stream

Fats, rags, and wipes blocked a Hamilton wastewater pipe, causing days of discharge into a Flagstaff stream.

Hamilton City Council pleaded guilty to a charge under the Resource Management Act, and is apologising to the community.

Council staff identified the discharge in the wastewater network beneath Delia Court on October 12, 2020, which was the result of a blockage in the Cumberland Dr wastewater pipe.

Staff estimated up to 1272 m3 of wastewater was discharged into a tributary of Te Awa o Katapaki Stream over nine days.

Waikato Regional Council completed a formal investigation and laid a charge against Hamilton City Council under the Resource Management Act. Hamilton City Council pleaded guilty. ‘‘The council recognises the importance of our waterways, and we take responsibility for managing the city’s water networks extremely seriously,’’ said Hamilton City Council city waters unit manager Emily Botje.

‘‘We regret the incident. We take full responsibility, and we apologise to the community.’’

The city council’s investigation found the blockage was caused by a build-up of fats, rags, wipes and other materials clotted in a pipe.

Some of those materials, including wipes, should not be flushed.

To mitigate further events, the council was reviewing its response processes, working to improve wastewater trend analysis processes, investigating the use of new network monitoring technology and informing the community of what is flushable and what isn’t.