She said she believed the water that flowed in from surrounding higher properties potentially transported the contaminated material.<\/p>\n
Her property slopes down from the street and is on a residential block in the rural village.<\/p>\n
E. coli, or Escherichia coli, is a bacteria found in the guts of warm-blooded mammals and birds. Some strains can cause serious illness, including gastric issues and kidney complications. It can be life-threatening in vulnerable people.<\/p>\n
E. coli levels are measured in colony forming units (CFU) per 100ml. <\/p>\n
There are no guidelines for safe levels of E. coli in stormwater, but 540 CFU per 100ml and above is unsafe for freshwater swimming, according to Land Air Water Aotearoa. Any amount of E. coli in drinking water is considered unsafe.<\/p>\n
Testing on February 13 by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council measured E. coli levels of 9.9 million CFU per 100ml in Montgomerie\u2019s middle lawn drain and 890,000 CFU per 100ml in ponding in her driveway.<\/p>\n
The back garden drain reading was 220 CFU per 100ml.<\/p>\n
One of the impacted drains at the property in Tarena St, Mamaku. Photo \/ Mathew Nash<\/p>\n
Montgomerie said testers told her they had never seen a reading so high at a residential property.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m nervous about it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just out here living in Third-World conditions and paying our rates just to have E. coli floating past our back door.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montgomerie said the flooding on her lawn was sometimes up to the top of her gumboots.<\/p>\n
She said she had regular infections, including in a wound after surgery, and she was wary of growing plants or produce in the garden.<\/p>\n
She said she had been telling the Rotorua Lakes Council about the flooding issue since she bought the property 12 years ago, but there had been little to no action.<\/p>\n
She said a potential septic tank issue and animals on the property were initially suggested as possible contributors of the E. coli.<\/p>\n
But Montgomerie said her septic tank was regularly maintained and had been emptied twice in the past 11 years. She did not believe her dozen or so chickens and one goat could be responsible for such a high reading. <\/p>\n
She said the Rotorua council had checked her drains for blockages with a camera in February but she was told they found nothing.<\/p>\n
In her opinion, a substandard stormwater system in Mamaku, combined with potential septic tank issues at nearby properties, was the culprit. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s wrong,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI keep saying, \u2018Can we make a plan?\u2019 Tell me what I need to do. But they don\u2019t come back with anything. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s disgusting and needs to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tarena St property is lower than surrounding sites and receives run-off during heavy rainfall. Photo \/ Mathew Nash<\/p>\n
Rotorua Lakes Council infrastructure and assets manager Stavros Michael said Mamaku\u2019s stormwater system was routinely inspected and maintained.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important to note that its design capacity has limitations to address any weather events,\u201d Michael said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore the recent heavy rainfall events, the system was inspected to ensure there were no blockages or known issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the council knew of some surface flooding in parts of the village during the most recent heavy rainstorm, but was \u201cnot aware\u201d of any residential flooding.<\/p>\n
He said any changes to the stormwater system in Mamaku would need to be considered as part of Long-Term Plan deliberations because of the level of investment required. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe encourage residents to make a submission during the Long\u2011term Plan consultation process, which is currently scheduled for April next year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bay of Plenty Regional Council\u2019s regulatory compliance manager, Stephen Mellor, confirmed testing at the site found \u201celevated\u201d E. coli levels and that Toi Te Ora Public Health had been notified. <\/p>\n
He said reticulated sewerage is not currently provided in Mamaku and is instead managed through on\u2011site effluent systems. <\/p>\n
He said the regional and district councils were working on the matter, but as \u201cinquiries are still underway\u201d, it would be inappropriate to comment further. <\/p>\n
Rotorua Lakes Council rural ward councillor Karen Barker said she would be happy to work with Montgomerie to find a solution and that she understood her concerns. <\/p>\n
Rotorua rural ward councillor Karen Barker. Photo \/ Laura Smith<\/p>\n
But she said it was not likely to be a quick fix. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a combination of factors,\u201d she said, highlighting the area\u2019s inconsistent elevation, lack of stormwater channels on some roads, and property works that have knock-on impacts.<\/p>\n
She also said some of the \u201cbest stormwater reticulation systems\u201d could not cope with the levels of rain increasingly seen across the district. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no simple answers. It likely requires a community-wide approach rather than individual fixes.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she would be checking in with the council staff responsible for any follow-up work to ensure the situation was still being investigated. <\/p>\n
Mathew Nash is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. He has previously written for SunLive, been a regular contributor to RNZ and was a football reporter in the UK for eight years.<\/p>\n
\u2013 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She said she believed the water that flowed in from surrounding higher properties potentially transported the contaminated material.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[31036,1975,1863,29385,29024,1038,5842,122104,5205,6259,109387,84864,1866,44192,19876,2082,5838,5365,5983,39575,111,43,139,69,4517,814,10710,1327,4520],"class_list":["post-403819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-asks","tag-at","tag-back","tag-believes","tag-blames","tag-brings","tag-calling","tag-coli","tag-council","tag-door","tag-e","tag-elevated","tag-find","tag-floating","tag-flooding","tag-for","tag-help","tag-lakes","tag-levels","tag-mamaku","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-past","tag-property","tag-resident","tag-rotorua","tag-solutions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403819","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=403819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}