Don’t take shellfish or swim at Picton Foreshore or Shelley Beach

The last 24 hours of rain in Picton has put the town’s sewerage system under pressure with overflows into the Waitohi Stream and Picton harbour.

Council operations and maintenance engineer Stephen Rooney said an overflow at the Dublin Street pump station was allowing sewage into Waitohi Stream and into the harbour.

At the same time, overflows from Fisherman’s Reserve pump station and the Surrey Street pump station, were draining into the Picton Marina and the stream flowing through Memorial Park.

Yesterday Council’s contractors were called in to clean up a property in Wairau Road where there was a sewage overflow for a short time. Another overflow occurred from a sewer manhole in the rail marshalling yard, washing into Waitohi Stream.

Waitohi Stream has been running very high and dirty, discolouring Picton harbour. Mr Rooney says the conditions occurred when there was a flood event of this scale and a multi-million dollar upgrade of Picton’s sewerage system is underway.

Council is erecting signs on the Picton Foreshore and at Shelley Beach, warning of the sewer discharge and advising against swimming or collecting shellfish until bacteria levels have dropped.

“We will take down the signs once it’s safe and in the meantime people should practice good hygiene if they come into contact with sewage or with sea water in the harbour area; thorough hand washing is important,” said Mr Rooney.

Water samples will be tested on Friday and through the weekend, once the Waitohi Stream has dropped. 

Once the stream level has receded, two or three tidal cycles should flush the harbour clean and all traces of contamination should disappear fairly quickly, Mr Rooney said.

The Council’s upgrade of the Picton sewerage system will see five kilometres of new pipeline laid under the town, three pump stations re-built, two pump stations upgraded and a new treatment facility at Dublin Street. The staged project is due for completion in 2019.

It’s a major infrastructural upgrade for the town and, when complete, Picton will have a sewerage system that will perform at a high level compared to the standard of other urban areas in New Zealand, said Mr Rooney.

ENDS.

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