{"id":281625,"date":"2026-02-13T04:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T04:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/281625\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T04:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T04:33:09","slug":"wet-weather-may-force-use-of-outfall-pipe-near-wellington-beaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/281625\/","title":{"rendered":"Wet weather may force use of outfall pipe near Wellington beaches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4JTQ53B_Image_5_jpg.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"700\" alt=\"Untreated water is leaking onto the capital's south coast beaches due to the Moa Point Treatment Plant flooding and being turned off from early this morning.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nBeaches on the south coast are still off limits after the sewage spill.<br \/>\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Samuel Rillstone\n<\/p>\n<p>Wellington Water says it is monitoring wet weather forecast for the capital this weekend as its Moa Point plant continues to leak raw sewage.<\/p>\n<p>The sewage plant melted down last week, flooding the building with waste and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/thedetail\/586592\/raw-sewage-still-pouring-into-wellington-waters-raises-questions-and-anger\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sending raw sewage<\/a> into the nearby south coast.<\/p>\n<p>Nearby beaches remained off limits due to tens of millions of litres of screened but untreated sewage flowing out the plant&#8217;s 1.8-kilometre outfall pipe each day.<\/p>\n<p>The water company said it may have to use its outfall pipe nearby the beaches at short notice due to increased water flows.<\/p>\n<p>It said if that happened a clean-up crew would be sent to the shoreline.<\/p>\n<p>MetService was forecasting rain and large swells up to seven metres in size on Sunday and Monday in Wellington.<\/p>\n<p>Wellington Water said removal of sewage from the plant and cleaning its rooms were ongoing.<\/p>\n<p>It was also working on understanding the state of the plant&#8217;s equipment and operations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This assessment will take some time, and we still expect there will be an extended outage at the plant.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sewage spill raises bird strike fear at Wellington Airport<\/p>\n<p>Wellington Airport says it has noticed increased bird activity near its runway this week, and it is taking safety measures for planes following the Moa Point failure.<\/p>\n<p>Wellington Airport&#8217;s location is very close to Moa Point.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4MZHJWA_190116-Plane01_13816.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"700\" alt=\"Generic plane. Air New Zealand at Wellington airport.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nWellington Airport is taking safety measures for planes following the Moa Point failure.<br \/>\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Rebekah Parsons-King\n<\/p>\n<p>With the risk of bird strike for aircraft in mind, its head of operations, Matthew Palliser, told RNZ they were monitoring the animals.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are keeping a close eye on bird activity around the airport and have noticed some increased activity at times this week, but we are always prepared for this.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Palliser said the airport had regular patrols checking the runway and that they worked closely with the Airways control tower.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When required, we use a range of tools to scare birds off, including different noises.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We also have a full-time Wildlife Officer who monitors bird activity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/radionz.us6.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=211a938dcf3e634ba2427dde9&amp;id=b3d362e693\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero, a daily newsletter<\/a> curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beaches on the south coast are still off limits after the sewage spill. Photo: RNZ \/ Samuel Rillstone&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-281625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}