Residents sick of sewage stink

Baylys Beach residents say they can't wait any longer for sewage overflows which are coming out of their drains and showers to be fixed.

The Kaipara District Council has been considering wastewater options for Baylys for a number of years and residents say the situation should be given more urgency.

The Northland Regional Council has carried out water quality tests in streams and drains at the settlement, which have indicated high levels of faecal coli-forms.

Kaipara District Council’s February meeting saw councillors decide to undertake more consultation with the community on a public wastewater system through the 2010 Annual Plan process.

Councillor Bill Guest asked whether their decision to undertake more consultation signalled an intention to go ahead with the project.

Chief executive Jack McKerchar said that this did not mean they were actually going to install a wastewater system.

"It can only be decided to proceed or not to proceed by this council," Mr Mc-Kerchar said.

Baylys Beach homeowner Marion Edwards said later that people have been waiting too long to have their sewerage systems addressed.

"We’ve been waiting and waiting since the first meeting we had with council four years ago."

Ms Edwards says 99 percent of the community wants to see this project go ahead.

"We want it for health reasons and because the current system is too old."

She says sewage is coming up through residential drains and seeping towards the beach.

"It’s coming up through the showers, which is just yuck."

Ms Edwards says a maintenance contractor working on the sewerage network told her that the ground at Baylys "is just caked in sewage underground".

"The lines that take the sewage away just can’t because the ground is caked."

She says everyone she has spoken with in the community is willing to pay for the project.

"Our rates are low compared to the Dargaville township, it won’t cost us any more in rates than someone living in town to have this wastewater system installed."

She says compared with upgrading the systems on an individual basis it is more cost effective.

"There are plenty of old holiday baches around Baylys that need their systems upgraded but the costs of doing this are $30,000.

"How many times does the council need to get engineers reports to tell them this system is needed?"

- © Fairfax NZ News