KĀWHIA’s ongoing wastewater needs assessment will be continued until the Ōtorohanga District Council (ŌDC) has a complete record of seasonal wastewater samples; summer, winter, and the peak holiday periods when the town was full. FILE PHOTO
Septic look at longdrops AN update of the Kāwhia sewerage testing turned a recent Kāwhia Community Board discussion into one about longdrops, enforcement, and the housing crisis. The ongoing wastewater needs assessment will be continued until the Ōtorohanga District Council (ŌDC) has a complete record of seasonal wastewater samples; summer, winter, and the peak holiday periods when the town was full. Septic tanks have been inspected and stormwater sampling was continuing, ŌDC environmental services manager Andrew Loe said.
SLEEPOUTS Chair Dave Walsh said an issue needing to be discussed was the number of sleepouts being added to properties without their septic systems being upgraded. “My house now if I want to put another bedroom on, I’ve got to put a whole new septic system in. But I can put in three or four sleep-outs, which are other bedrooms really, and have no necessity or order to have to upgrade my septic. “When you are checking the groundwater, how much is coming from these sleepouts that I think are being illegally put in?” Andrew said the issue was acknowledged. It wasn’t a problem Kāwhia was experiencing alone. “I talk to my colleagues at other councils, and it is nationwide,” he said. “I suppose everyone clamours for cheap housing – well that is what cheap housing and affordable housing looks like.” Dave said there was a section on the right as one drove into Kāwhia where a person had put in a caravan and was building.
DECISIONS “What’s his toilet system? Do we check that? Is there no requirement there? If they haven’t got a proper septic or have just dug a long drop, that’s going to be seeping into the [harbour].” Andrew said they could go down there with a “very heavy regulatory hand”, but was that going to create an outcome that was worse than the situation in which they were currently living? “I suppose you have to be mindful of the overall good of the people in your community,” he said. “I wouldn’t want council to be an agent where we cast people from a poor living situation into a bad living situation. “And that is the reality of what we are faced with. These people [genuinely] have no other option. “And they will go from there and they will create overcrowding at another house and will go to a sub-standard housing situation. So I think it is a nationwide problem. Everyone acknowledges there isn’t enough housing in New Zealand.”
‘RUNNING FOR COVER CEO Tanya Winter said if the community board wanted to completely back the staff, and make it publicly known, front page of the paper, that was a direction it wanted to take – then a recommendation to proceed could be obtained through the district council. They were not going to take direction from the community board which could then run for cover when people began complaining they had nowhere to live. “I think we have to balance things, we have a housing crisis,” she said. Dave said it wasn’t judging, it was a health issue. “We are investigating septic tanks leaking, but we are not investigating all these people who haven’t got a septic tank,” he said.
TANK CONDITIONS “We are checking out the groundwater to see the condition of the tanks. But how much of what is going into the groundwater isn’t coming from septic tanks but is coming from people who have put their caravan there and put a long drop in?” If a person loaded up the septic tank with extra bathrooms, bedrooms and the system failed and discharged creating a health nuisance, council staff will step in and take action, Andrew said. “But up to that point where there is no obvious failure or effect, nuisance to neighbouring properties, we probably will not take any steps to intervene in the matter,” he said.
NEEDS ASSESSMENT The needs assessment that sparked the discussion is to confirm or not the case for a community wastewater scheme. The assessment covers three elements: understand the condition and performance of septic tanks in Kāwhia, understand the impact septic tanks were having on groundwater and Kāwhia harbour, and identify what options are available for ensuring a community wastewater system was affordable for Kāwhia (if a decision to proceed was made).
