Wellington’s Moa Point wastewater treatment plant back up and running after February disaster

Detailed summary

Wellington’s stricken Moa Point wastewater treatment plant has started operating today for the first time since it catastrophically failed more than nine months ago. The South…

Wellington’s stricken Moa Point wastewater treatment plant has started operating today for the first time since it catastrophically failed more than nine months ago.

The South Coast facility flooded in the early hours of February 4, leading to tens of millions of dollars in damage, court action and billions of litres of untreated sewage being pumped into Cook Strait for months.

The capital’s new water entity Tiaki Wai, which has since taken over ownership of the plant, today announced it has officially been restarted as part of a gradual recommissioning process.

“Treatment capacity will increase over the coming weeks as the system stabilises and Tiaki Wai watches the plant’s performance closely,” the organisation said in a statement today.

“Today’s restart is an important step, but it is not the end of the recovery,” Tiaki Wai chief executive Michael Brewster said.

“Re-establishing biological treatment takes time, and we’ll continue to take a careful and phased approach as treatment capacity is gradually restored over the weeks ahead.”

The plant was initially supposed to be back up and running earlier this week, but was delayed slightly after final checks found crews needed more time to complete commissioning and testing of the ventilation system.

The failure triggered multiple reports, including a Government-ordered Crown Review, which revealed years of systemic and governance failures across organisations including Wellington Water and Wellington City Council.

It has been described as “one of the most significant infrastructure incidents experienced in Wellington in recent decades”.

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