Te Tauihu iwi have placed a rāhui across the Motueka coastline of Te Tauihu o Te Waka-a-Māui, as a result of a failure of parts of the Motueka Wastewater Treatment Plant facility which has seen seepage of treated water into the Motueka estuary.
Last month Council engineers discovered that part of the filtration system at the Motueka Wastewater treatment plant was showing signs of failure and while it was still functioning, it was not working at optimum performance.
The part of the system causing concern are membranes used in the final filtering stage after the wastewater treatment process.
The Council is focusing on keeping the oxidation pond levels constant (to avoid an uncontrolled overflow) by pumping any partially treated wastewater to the adjacent former soakage area and allowing it to seep and overflow to the former wetland area.
The rāhui, which took effect at 10.00 am on Wednesday 18 October, covers the area indicated in yellow in the map below.
The rāhui covers the coastline and river mouths from North of the saltwater baths to the Riuwaka river mouth and prevents the gathering of seafood and kai in these areas, as well as swimming and entering the water.
The rāhui was implemented by the hau kāinga whānau of Motueka with the support of the eight mana whenua iwi of Te Tauihu and Tasman District Council.
A rōpū of mana whenua iwi gathered at Motueka for karakia to acknowledge the implementation of the rāhui.
The area will continue to be monitored and the rāhui will stay in place until levels of contamination are considered low enough to be safe to return to activities in the area and our whānau, hapū and iwi are happy that it is safe to lift the rāhui.
