Council should have told community about massive raw sewage spill at Taranaki stream, mayor says

When 1.5 million litres of raw sewage was spilled into a Taranaki stream the community should have been told, and in future it will be, New Plymouth's mayor says.

The spill occurred overnight Monday January 21, when sewage overflowed from Bell Block's pumping station and into the Mangati Stream.

The morning after the spill the New Plymouth District Council sent a staff member to the site to let people know what had happened, updated the signage at the site, alerted iwi, Taranaki Regional Council and interest groups, and added warnings on the council website in the "Can I swim" and "Wastewater Overflows" sections.

However no public statement was made about the massive spill until a media query were made a week later. Read more