Wastewater treatment plant affected by illegal dumping

The Western Wastewater treatment plant in Karori, New Zealand was unable to continue with its everyday processes yesterday (September 23rd) after an illegal discharge of organic materials blocked its intake screens. The concentrated material was illegally dumped into Kaori's wastewater network in the morning, stopping the plant from being able to take in its usual wastewater flow for treatments. 

The Veolia Water plant was forced to shut down the usual wastewater flow due to the blocked screens. Instead water was diverted to a storage tank that is usually only utilised during particularly heavy rainfall, when the flow of wastewater is too much for the plant to process. This diversion allowed the operators to clear the screens of the concentrated organic matter in order to resume the plant's normal functions.

Before normal water flow was resumed, the storage tank had reached around 91 per cent capacity. The timely restoration of the plant's function meant that the operators were able to avoid having to discharge partially treated wastewater via an outfall pipe. This would have meant that the water would be discharged off the South Coast of New Zealand. 

The organic material that caused the blockage has been repeatedly dumped in Kaori's wastewater system since February this year. Wellington City Council trade waste officers and Capacity Infrastructure Services have been working to discover the identity of the party that is illegally dumping materials into the system, but has yet to identify them. They are appealing for any information that could lead to the arrest of the guilty party and stop the dumping.

So far nothing distinguishable has been identified in the material that seems to be dumped into the wastewater system every four to eight weeks. Testing has found that it does not greatly differ from typical waste materials of this type and so a suspect has yet to be identified. 

The Western Wastewater treatment plant is now fully operational following the successful clearing of the screens.