{"id":291639,"date":"2026-02-19T12:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T12:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/291639\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T12:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T12:15:07","slug":"onemana-sinkhole-near-wastewater-plant-sparks-beach-health-alert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/291639\/","title":{"rendered":"Onemana sinkhole near wastewater plant sparks beach health alert"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe are aware of a tomo (sinkhole) that has formed near the Onemana Wastewater Treatment Plant, and we suspect treated wastewater may have entered a local wetland, potentially entering a stream that flows to the beach area,\u201d the council said. <\/p>\n

As a proactive step, the council said it is erecting signage by the Onemana Drive carpark.<\/p>\n

This will advise people not to swim, fish or collect shellfish in the area around where the stream discharges.<\/p>\n

This warning will be in place until further notice. <\/p>\n

The council said it was also turning off the irrigation disposal closest to the sinkhole area as a precaution. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Thames-Coromandel District Council made a public post urging locals not to swim, fish, or collect shellfish south of the Onemana Drive carpark. Photo \/ Thames-Coromandel District Council<\/p>\n

In addition, it was carrying out sampling at and near the sinkhole site and stream discharge area.<\/p>\n

Officials will also carry out regular monitoring of the site to ensure no further deterioration or land movement occurs. <\/p>\n

The council said it was going to treat the wastewater ponds to deal with a recent algae bloom. <\/p>\n

\"SignsSigns warning of pollution on Wellington’s south coast as a result of the Moa Point Wastewater Treatment Plant failure. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n

This incident comes after a significant Wellington sewage spill<\/a> this month. <\/p>\n

The Moa Point treatment plant suffered a \u201ccatastrophic\u201d failure, which sent raw sewage into the sea. <\/p>\n

The plant was flooded by raw sewage, causing it to shut down and be evacuated. As a result, raw sewage was instead being pumped out into the ocean on Wellington\u2019s south coast.<\/p>\n

When asked how bad the failure was on a scale of one to 100, Wellington Water chief executive Pat Dougherty gave it a 90.<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe are aware of a tomo (sinkhole) that has formed near the Onemana Wastewater Treatment Plant, and we…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,41242,7972,5205,7557,125679,134,3180,111,43,139,69,161558,4885,36655,8207,37315,2766,25444,1455,78597],"class_list":{"0":"post-291639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-after","9":"tag-alert","10":"tag-beach","11":"tag-council","12":"tag-district","13":"tag-formed","14":"tag-health","15":"tag-near","16":"tag-new-zealand","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-newzealand","19":"tag-nz","20":"tag-onemana","21":"tag-plant","22":"tag-sinkhole","23":"tag-sparks","24":"tag-thamescoromandel","25":"tag-treatment","26":"tag-urgent","27":"tag-warning","28":"tag-wastewater"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291639","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=291639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}