13 Nov 2025

Oyster farmers say it will take years to recover from sewage overflow

From Checkpoint, 4:44 pm on 13 November 2025

They're purveyors of some of the world's most sought-after culinary delicacies, but Mahurangi's oyster farmers have been reduced to eating beans on toast most days, their hair going grey, their nerves shot. Last month the farmers were hit with a livelihood-ruining sewage overflow after a power surge at a new wastewater treatment plant in Warkworth. Yesterday, a $1 million compensation deal was struck, but the 10 farmers say $100,000 each is only a drop in the sewage-polluted ocean compared to what they've lost. Bella Craig reports.