Seaview Wastewater Treatment Plant. Photo: Supplied / Wellington Water
A recurrent stench from a Lower Hutt sewage plant that is so bad it has sparked numerous complaints since 2023 has prompted new investigations.
Local have said they feel like they are "in the sewer", despite a multimillion-dollar clean-up at the Seaview plant beside the Hutt River.
Just three months ago, Welllington Water attempted to reprimand Seaview's operator - the Veolia multinational.
Chief executive Pat Dougherty wrote to Veolia country director Emma Brand on 4 December, saying: "Wellington Water has not historically sought a financial penalty.
"That historical practise will no longer be followed."
The breaches at Seaview and several other plants were "significant and repeated" and every breach "amounts to a potential criminal offence", Dougherty said in the letter released to RNZ under the Official Information Act.
"Contract penalty payments are likely to be enforced by Wellington Water in the future."
Old infrastructure and poor management is an issue for all four plants around the Wellington region that Veolia runs under a $17m annual contract, reviews have found.
Wellington Water imposed monthly checks on performance at all of them in December.
It was now investigating "potential performance standard breaches", it told RNZ on Wednesday, though added these could be due to poor asset condition from underinvestment.
It did not specify Seaview, but the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC), said: "Greater Wellington is also investigating alleged non-compliant effluent and odour discharges from Seaview WWTP."
Veolia told RNZ that all plants were fully compliant and there were "no active investigations into their performance or breaches by Wellington Water".
But the agency said: "Veolia are aware that there have been potential breaches of performance standards, but may not be formally aware of the breach process investigations."
Breaches have hit not just Veolia in the pocket, but also the water body and local councils. They collectively faced fines of $70,000 in 2023.
"Wellington Water has also spent considerable time and resources in the last 12 months investigating and responding to these issues, including communications with GWRC," Dougherty told Brand in December's letter.
"It is anticipated that the number and nature of these ongoing breaches has now increased the prospect that GWRC may take formal RMA prosecution action in the future, as there seems no change to the pattern of compliance issues arising."
A $13m clean-up project at Seaview made some improvements within a GWRC deadline in November. It faces another improvement deadline in December.
But more complaints flooded in during both October and November last year.
"Dirty smelly stink in Waiwhetu again," said one local.
"I was at the Hutt Indoor Sports facility this evening for a game of indoor cricket and was getting dizzy from the stench wafting over," said another.
"Disgusting Seaview treatment plant. Summer starts again. Do something!!!" said a third.
Dougherty, who took on the top job three months earlier in September, signalled a tougher stance, telling Brand the continued breaches were grounds to terminate the contract.
"At the end of each month, Wellington Water will assess compliance and where in any month there has been any failure to meet Performance Standards, Wellington Water will notify Veolia of the grounds for the failure and the financial consequence."
It also had to rapidly fix the breach, he said.
"Where there is a failure to meet a Performance Standard, the Wellington Water Contract Manager will record the failure against the next invoice."
The agency told RNZ that January's monthly performance was being assessed and February's report was due.
"Since the letter was sent, we have not sought to impose financial penalty payments with the contractor, but this does not indicate that this will not occur for potential breaches that may be under investigation," it said.
Veolia signed a contract in 2019 - worth $17m a year for 10 years - to operate the four wastewater plants, building on its existing long record at Moa Pt and Western plants.
It took up a contract covering plants where infrastructure underinvestment extended back for many years, and has continued to be far too low, according to two reviews.
The first review in 2021 focused on "relationship challenges".
Veolia then "engaged a global taskforce" and set up a 'Beyond Compliance' project, but this made little difference, Wellington Water staff told the second review last year.
Even though the 2024 review found enduring "evidence of lack of trust between the two organisations", it put most of the blame for the plague of breaches on "the poor condition of the existing and ageing assets".
The sewage plants remained unreliable and had a big backlog of maintenance and upgrades.
The way the contract was managed was also ineffective and failed to encourage collaboration, despite three years of working on this following the 2021 review.
"To move forward, Veolia must leverage its global expertise to address local challenges and enhance its operational practices."
Veolia manages several thousand water plants.
"Wellington Water needs to improve its contract management practices to foster a more collaborative relationship," said the 2024 review.
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