feral and disgusting<\/a>“.<\/p>\nA local daycare centre was forced to close due to health concerns.<\/p>\n
In a packed public meeting in the suburb on Saturday, Wellington Water’s Chris Fleck said two pieces of timber had blocked the network.<\/p>\n
“The main cause of the restriction in the network yesterday [on Friday] was two pieces of timber … so timber doesn’t get flushed down the toilets, someone has inadvertently put it in the network.<\/p>\n
“Don’t know how that would have got there, but that’s what caused the blockage.”<\/p>\n
![\"Island](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4JNCSOA_Public_Meeting_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nIsland Bay residents packed out a community meeting at the weekend to discuss recovery after April’s storm, and Friday’s sewage spill.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Ellen O’Dwyer\n<\/p>\n
Fleck said the timber had caused wastewater to back-up in the network, causing the sewage to “back-flow” into a number of properties and spill out of manholes along the parade.<\/p>\n
Island Bay business-owner Fran de Gregorio said despite what had been reported, the sewage had not been unblocked in her mother’s property sewer sump on Saturday.<\/p>\n
![\"Wellington](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4JNCRIT_timber_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nWellington Water has confirmed pieces of timber got stuck in the sewage system, triggering Friday’s sewage spill.
\nPhoto: Supplied \/ Wellington Water\n<\/p>\n
“I can assure you, there were 11 Wellington Water men on her section last night, at 11 o’clock at night, and they could not clear the sewage system.”<\/p>\n
She also said in a separate incident for the stormwater system, contractors had pulled pieces of wood up from the drain outside her shop in 2024, following major works on the parade.<\/p>\n
“Long things – they were pulling out of the drains because they had left them in there and it was about to flood my shop.”<\/p>\n
Fleck said Wellington Water workers were working late into the night after Friday’s spill.<\/p>\n
Tempers flared about that spill, and maintenances of drains in general, at the community meeting which had been called to discuss flood recovery after April’s storm.<\/p>\n
Fleck said the city’s stormwater networks were there to collect and safely dispose of rainfall run-off, but were not designed for extreme events.<\/p>\n
![\"Residents](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4JNIHD8_Screenshot_2026_06_05_113020_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\n
Photo: Supplied\n<\/p>\n
He said the one in one hundred year flood in April inundated parts of the network.<\/p>\n
Some of the stormwater pipes dated back to the late 1800s and early 1900s, most were between 60 and 90 years old, he said.<\/p>\n
“The key point I want to make today, and I appreciate it’s an emotive subject after the events of yesterday [Friday] is that the wastewater networks, and the stormwater networks, are not connected.”<\/p>\n
But his comment that Wellington Water regularly checked stormwater intakes was met with yells of “not true” and “don’t lie”.<\/p>\n
Mayor Andrew Little interjected.<\/p>\n
![\"Residents](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4JNIFOC_Image_1_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\n
Photo: RNZ \/ Samuel Rillstone\n<\/p>\n
“Ok, no, there will be time for questions and comments afterwards … please just let the presentation be completed.”<\/p>\n
Fleck repeated staff checked the intakes.<\/p>\n
A Wellington Water spokesperson said the pieces of wood – about 300- 400mm long – were found blocking a sewage pipe outside 335 The Parade.<\/p>\n
“We can’t be certain how the material entered the network.”<\/p>\n
The timber may have ended up in a stream that washed into the system, he said.<\/p>\n
He said if people see anybody dumping materials into streams, waterways or pipe networks, they should report that immediately to Wellington City Council.<\/p>\n
“Foreign materials have been found previously – such as bricks and other debris. On one occasion a road cone caused a significant blockage.”<\/p>\n
The blockage on Friday morning resulted in sewage overflowing through the gully traps on 5 properties nearby, the spokesperson said, and crews cleaned and disinfected the affected properties.<\/p>\n
He said a second blockage occurred later in the day outside 124 The Parade, due to the roots of a P\u014dhutukawa tree.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fleck said Wellington Water workers were working late into the night after Friday’s spill. Photo: RNZ \/ Samuel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-466274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466274","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=466274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Residents](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4JNIFOC_Image_2_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n