Locals uneasy over tunnel
$44m project for St Marys Bay triggers residents’ questions
Abig push by Auckland mayor Phil Goff to improve the city’s beaches and water quality is being put to the test in the inner-city suburbs of Herne Bay and St Marys Bay.
Goff is on the cusp of securing a $452 million boost to clean up beaches and harbours in his 10-year budget today — the same day a public meeting is being held to discuss a $44m water improvement project.
The St Marys Bay/Masefield Beach project is designed to quickly improve water quality after visible signs of pollution at Westhaven in 2015 were traced to wastewater and stormwater overflows from the cliffside suburb.
Residents are keeping an open mind about drilling a wastewater and stormwater storage tunnel under houses built on the cliff face at St Marys Bay to Pt Erin where the water will be pumped to a main sewer or discharged into the harbour west of the harbour bridge.
They do, however, have a number of issues with the project and how it fits alongside other projects to improve water quality in the inner suburbs, including a plan to separate the combined wastewater and stormwater system in Herne Bay and St Marys Bay. “We have got the same goals and outcomes as Auckland Council’s Healthy Waters,” said David Abbott, of the St Marys Bay Association. “We want to improve water quality as quickly as possible. It’s a question of the path we travel to get there.”
Abbott and Herne Bay Residents’ Association member Dirk Hudig are not convinced the project dovetails with another water project to build a tunnel from Grey Lynn to Western Springs where a giant storage tunnel costing $1 billion will run to the Ma¯ngere wastewater treatment plant.
The Grey Lynn to Western Springs tunnel is expected to reduce the number of outfalls in the western inner city from 42 to 10, and cut overflows from the 10 outfalls from more than 50 times a year to twoto-six within 10 years.
Abbott and Hudig — who are also members of the Stop Auckland Sewage Overflows Coalition — believe the council is galloping off to spend $44m when they don’t know if it will deliver the promised benefits. They want an independent peer review.
“The issues have taken time to emerge but for the sake of a bit of time we might get a more cohesive outcome,” Abbott said.
The council declined to make anyone available to answer issues raised by Abbott and Hudig, saying “the regulatory process is under way and given that we have already received submissions we cannot provide additional information as the consent application has to stand alone”.
Submissions on the St Marys Bay project close on June 19.