Watercare makes payment of $1 million to Mahurangi oyster farmers affected by wastewater overflow

Watercare has today made an immediate compensation payment of $1 million to Aquaculture New Zealand for distribution to 10 oyster farmers impacted by the recent wastewater overflow in Warkworth. The company will work with Aquaculture New Zealand to reach a final resolution through an external assessment process.

Watercare chief executive Jamie Sinclair says this payment relates solely to the most recent overflow, for which Watercare has committed to make things right.

“The incident was caused by a unique chain of events – a power surge that was compounded by our alert system and monitoring not operating as intended. We are appointing an external expert to assist us in quantifying the impact on the oyster farmers.

“I’ve written to the farmers to reiterate my apology and confirm the payment of $1 million, as well as inform them of the external assessment process. After the incident, I said we were committed to making things right, and we’ve worked quickly to turn that commitment into action.

“We know this disruption comes at a very challenging time, just as the harvest season was at its peak. Today’s payment is intended to provide immediate support, and we hope to have the assessment process complete before Christmas.”

Watercare put forward the $1 million offer of immediate compensation on Friday 7 November, with the agreement being signed by Aquaculture New Zealand earlier today.

Details of the event and Watercare’s response

The incident was caused by a power surge that tripped the pumps and caused the storage tank to fill, leading to a wastewater overflow from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday morning [29-30 October].

Watercare estimates 1200 cubic metres of wastewater overflowed from the pump station. While the amount that entered the river is unclear, it’s estimated to be about half. The remainder was contained in a stormwater pond next to the pump station. This has since been emptied, cleaned and refilled.

The overflow was compounded by the alarm system and monitoring not operating as intended, which meant the issue was not identified as quickly as it should have been.

The pump station was stabilised, and normal operations were restored on Thursday 30 October.

Two investigations are underway – one into the cause of the power surge and another reviewing the alarm system and monitoring. External parties have been appointed to provide independent feedback.

Watercare remains committed to learning from this incident and ensuring it cannot happen again.