Taranaki milk spill blamed on open valve

HAWERA: Fonterra is blaming an open valve for a spill of 170,000 litres of skim milk into the Tasman Sea from its Whareroa plant in Taranaki in November.

The leak left globules of fat dispersed along the foreshore of Ohawe and Waihi beaches, near Hawera.

In a similar mishap in 2008, 110,000 litres of skim milk spilt into the ocean from the same plant.

In a statement, Fonterra lower North Island operations general manager Tony Maclean said the fault caused milk to overwhelm the plant’s wastewater system.

‘‘A valve on a pipe that we transfer milk through opened, releasing milk into the wastewater drain, instead of it reaching its intended location of another milk silo.

‘‘As soon as we became aware of the leak, we stopped the transfer of the milk. However our current wastewater system could not cope ... so the milk overflowed into our ocean outfall.’’

The Taranaki Regional Council and iwi were notified immediately.

Mr Maclean said skim milk was soluble in water and an inspection of the outfall shortly after the spill showed no milk in the sea. However, Fonterra staff were sent to remove visible fat deposits from the Ohawe and Waihi beaches.

The Rangitapu Trust incorporates the Ohawe Beach Camp and Ohawe Boat Club.

Its chairman Nigel Nuku noticed the spill, but was not too concerned.

‘‘We’ve had it now and again, but it wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t to the point where I had to jump up and down do anything about it.’’

But Emily Bailey, an iwi appointee on the regional council’s consents and regulatory committee, said the leak was symptomatic of wider issues.

‘‘There’s just a lot of pressure on our rivers and our kai moana . . . kaumatua from around there say they haven’t been able to collect kai moana like they used to out on that coast.

‘‘So companies really need to think longterm. We need our fisheries and we need our clean water.’’ — RNZ