November 30, 2025 • 11 mins
Auckland oyster farmers are facing another blow just weeks after a major wastewater spill into the Mahurangi River.
Watercare says heavy rain on 19 November caused 86 cubic metres of wastewater and stormwater to overflow into the river from a Warkworth pipeline.
The Ministry for Primary Industries has suspended harvesting while tests are carried out, but growers say the spill has already wrecked their busiest season.
Matakana Oysters owner Tom Walters told Kerre Woodham that, 'it's been a gutting year, and it seems to be the gutting cherry on top of it at the moment.'
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk st be
follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Weeks after a twelve hundred quebic meet a wastewater spill
into the Mahurangi River, Auckland oyster farmers are dealing with
the effects of another overflow, which they say has stuffed
their Christmas season. Water Care says that on the nineteenth
of November, Walkworth experienced more than half the town's average
rainfall for the entire month, a total of fifty three
(00:37):
millimeters overnight. The Ministry of Primary Industries instructed growls to
suspend harvesting while it carried out testing. The results are
expected later this week, but Matakana oysters Tom Walters said
the spell had already ruined their plans for December, their
busiest period of the year. Tom Walters joins me, now
a very good morning to you.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Good morning Carrie.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
It must be gutting.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Ah. It's been a gutting year and it seems to
be the gutting cherry on pop of at the moment.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Now you can't stay there, can you?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Well not really if this is going to continue for
another year or two. Before they actually bought the problem
out permanently.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, they're not going to be able to do it
in the next six months. You've already had two spells.
You had them last year. And look, aren't you worried
about reputational damage to the to the brand?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Oh well yeah, I mean we've had We've had more
than twenty something spills this year. I think all up
and weather. The reputation of the Maharani Harbor is really
been padders. And I mean at this time of the year,
we're sort of trying to get Christmas orders in and
get people ready to have Christmas studies and things like that,
(01:56):
and that's not possible with this situation. Yeah, I don't know.
I can't hang on for another year of it.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
No, And you've got watergre who will who will compensate
you when it's there when it's a technical failure, But
they're not required to compensate for heavy rainfall.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Well, I mean yeah, so that dry weather spill was
complete stuff up a brand new infrastructure. When it comes
to rain that causes wastewater overflows, they have consents that
they've written basically themselves, allowing to be able to still
up two hundred times a year in any overflow pipe
(02:38):
or point, and so there's nothing much we can do
about that, unfortunately, because for them it's all legal, and
the hypocrisy being that anyone else farmer set the tank person,
any industry that was doing the same thing, it would
be fined out of existence. Basically that these guys can
(02:59):
just do it for the better good of trying to
fix the infrastructure up and where the sort of ones
caught out, and those the environment and every one who
wants to use our beautiful river and harbor.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
So what do you recommend? What would you what would
be your ideal solution, Well, it would.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Be to try and find where the stormwater is inflow
is getting into the wastewater system, because right now they've
done a few temporary fixes. We've had to point out
all year horroblem areas and walk with which I've tried
to fix up, but now it seems like they've actually
gone gone, well, we're not going to do anything else
(03:41):
but done all we can. We're just going to wait
until we put the new pipe through end of next
year or the year after. And there's no investigation that
I know of to try and find where the storm
water is getting into the wastewater system, and that would
really help us out. Every little thing that could get
fixed would help us allow more rainfall before more stewages
(04:03):
coming into the river and harbor. Another thing I would
love someone to do is actually looking too how these
resource contents are done, how they liaison with the public,
with people like us, with Ewie, with the local boards.
Because it feels a little bit hard when we never
(04:24):
got told in twenty twenty two or twenty three that
they are going for what was too wet weather schools
a year to two hundred. It seems ridiculous that they
seem to have too much power to be here allowed
to do that. But yeah, that's what I had liked done,
at least in the short term.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Every time I hear heavy, heavy, heavy rain, I think
how disgusting the sea is going to be, and ideally,
you know, the new pipes around Auckland are going to
fix that, but they said nothing is ever going to
be one hundred percent you know, fixable. Is there anywhere
(05:03):
in the country where you could set up an oyster
farm and not run the risk of having this this overflow,
because what's the alternative that they just run it down
the streets? Or run it into a park or reserve.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
A very very good question. I mean, I think unless
you're an incredibly isolated areas and we were once not
too many years ago, but you know you are going
to get I mean, this is happening in a scale
that is national. It's happening all over the place, unfortunately
all Oyster areas because a lot of up north where
(05:39):
the growth hasn't hidden things like that. But unfortunately it
is the way that we've grown without being able to
handle the infrastructure. So nowhere is it's going to be
one hundred safe from those massive tempest, rainstorms and things
like that. Auckland has been experiencing this problem for a
(06:01):
few decades and we all know what the beaches are
like and rivers are like after it rains and caps
in there. That is because unfortunately the infrastructure couldn't keep
up with the growth, and it's sort of like the
angulance at the bottom of the cliff. I don't know
what the solution is to make it better, but I
(06:22):
really wish we had just grown appropriately and it would
have been a better situation for us. How can we
be clean green New Zealand we have this happening all
over our you know, comforts.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Crazy, how long can you stay in business?
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Look, Kerry, this year, I've been really fortunate. I don't
know how he made it this. I mean, we're really
lucky to have lovely community support, doing a fundraiser for
us and just managing fine oysters from other areas. But
that costs money. For instance, since the dry with this
fill end of October, I've spent nearly twenty thousand dollars
(07:02):
on buying oysters in from other areas so you.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Can fulfill your orders.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Well, just so that I can my doors open to
the public coming in and orders. Unfortunately, it doesn't really
make economic sense. But we were really hoping to get
the Christmas new period in and unfortunately last three years
in November the rain which was on average about eighty
(07:27):
six mills previously, it's more like one hundred and twenty
or thirty mills a month in November now, so November
and December a weather than they used to be. And
you know, that's what we have to deal with. But
it just comes with a lot of more problems. And yeah,
I don't know, I mean we can't, we can't survive
(07:47):
with us next year. That's assure at least not my
little retail situation unless the Order Care come to the
party and help us out in terms of just giving
us something to survive until their permanent type comes through
and also maybe giving us buying helping us fund an
area where we can put our oysters from the Mahrangi
(08:07):
into an other farm and another location just to decorate
them out until they're healthy again. Options are there, but
they just don't seem to want to come to the
party for that unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
We Yeah, so what having a sewage free space for
the oyster farm?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah, there is but that we could hopefully use and
that will have to build ourselves. These areas there. Some
of us want to be able to what we call
relay oysters from one from our harbor put them into
another harbor. I mean, logistically it's quite difficult and it
does take a lot of time and money. But there
(08:50):
is a good plan that's trying to be put in
place by our wonderful present of the Maranguist Farm Association.
But you know, we can't afford to do it without assistance,
and that's the hard thing right now.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I just must be so galling.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yes, yeah, you know it's it's farming in terms of
there's always a problem, there's always weather events, there's always something.
This is a human made problem that should really never
have happened. The Maharangi was a beautiful, beautiful, clean harbor
(09:32):
for decades and decades, and this growth has only been
in the last five years or more. They knew that
it was that carrying capacity their best seage facilities five
years ago. Auckland Council allowed more growth to occur. In
the meantime, we don't know private plan changes, you know,
developers get away with it whatever. It seems to be
(09:54):
that the environment is never considered in these situations. It's
like we're a real estate economy in New Zealand with
a slide economy attached to it. So I don't know,
it's just sometimes you get the whole like, oh, you
just don't know how you can cope with it for
much longer. Or hear the rain on the roof and
(10:15):
people have heard me say that all the year and
can't sleep and things like that. But what does make
it at least a little bit okay is when people
with beautiful support, people coming and people wanting to talk
about it, people really wanting to help. Just someone smiling
and just being kind to it just makes all the
(10:37):
difference for all of us and we really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Oh Tom, Yeah, the only answer is relocation or solving
the problem, and water Care has said yeah, they won't
be completed till the end of twenty twenty six. We
really feel for the oyster growers. We've accelerated the first
stage of the growth servicing pipeline, bringing it forward by
(11:05):
two years to evidence service by the end of next year.
When it's in service, this pipeline will prevent an overflow
in similar weather to what we experienced last week, but
they cannot guarantee a hundred percent that they can fix it.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
For more from News Talks at b Listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk st be
follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Weeks after a twelve hundred quebic meet a wastewater spill
into the Mahurangi River, Auckland oyster farmers are dealing with
the effects of another overflow, which they say has stuffed
their Christmas season. Water Care says that on the nineteenth
of November, Walkworth experienced more than half the town's average
rainfall for the entire month, a total of fifty three
(00:37):
millimeters overnight. The Ministry of Primary Industries instructed growls to
suspend harvesting while it carried out testing. The results are
expected later this week, but Matakana oysters Tom Walters said
the spell had already ruined their plans for December, their
busiest period of the year. Tom Walters joins me, now
a very good morning to you.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Good morning Carrie.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
It must be gutting.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Ah. It's been a gutting year and it seems to
be the gutting cherry on pop of at the moment.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Now you can't stay there, can you?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Well not really if this is going to continue for
another year or two. Before they actually bought the problem
out permanently.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, they're not going to be able to do it
in the next six months. You've already had two spells.
You had them last year. And look, aren't you worried
about reputational damage to the to the brand?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Oh well yeah, I mean we've had We've had more
than twenty something spills this year. I think all up
and weather. The reputation of the Maharani Harbor is really
been padders. And I mean at this time of the year,
we're sort of trying to get Christmas orders in and
get people ready to have Christmas studies and things like that,
(01:56):
and that's not possible with this situation. Yeah, I don't know.
I can't hang on for another year of it.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
No, And you've got watergre who will who will compensate
you when it's there when it's a technical failure, But
they're not required to compensate for heavy rainfall.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Well, I mean yeah, so that dry weather spill was
complete stuff up a brand new infrastructure. When it comes
to rain that causes wastewater overflows, they have consents that
they've written basically themselves, allowing to be able to still
up two hundred times a year in any overflow pipe
(02:38):
or point, and so there's nothing much we can do
about that, unfortunately, because for them it's all legal, and
the hypocrisy being that anyone else farmer set the tank person,
any industry that was doing the same thing, it would
be fined out of existence. Basically that these guys can
(02:59):
just do it for the better good of trying to
fix the infrastructure up and where the sort of ones
caught out, and those the environment and every one who
wants to use our beautiful river and harbor.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
So what do you recommend? What would you what would
be your ideal solution, Well, it would.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Be to try and find where the stormwater is inflow
is getting into the wastewater system, because right now they've
done a few temporary fixes. We've had to point out
all year horroblem areas and walk with which I've tried
to fix up, but now it seems like they've actually
gone gone, well, we're not going to do anything else
(03:41):
but done all we can. We're just going to wait
until we put the new pipe through end of next
year or the year after. And there's no investigation that
I know of to try and find where the storm
water is getting into the wastewater system, and that would
really help us out. Every little thing that could get
fixed would help us allow more rainfall before more stewages
(04:03):
coming into the river and harbor. Another thing I would
love someone to do is actually looking too how these
resource contents are done, how they liaison with the public,
with people like us, with Ewie, with the local boards.
Because it feels a little bit hard when we never
(04:24):
got told in twenty twenty two or twenty three that
they are going for what was too wet weather schools
a year to two hundred. It seems ridiculous that they
seem to have too much power to be here allowed
to do that. But yeah, that's what I had liked done,
at least in the short term.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Every time I hear heavy, heavy, heavy rain, I think
how disgusting the sea is going to be, and ideally,
you know, the new pipes around Auckland are going to
fix that, but they said nothing is ever going to
be one hundred percent you know, fixable. Is there anywhere
(05:03):
in the country where you could set up an oyster
farm and not run the risk of having this this overflow,
because what's the alternative that they just run it down
the streets? Or run it into a park or reserve.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
A very very good question. I mean, I think unless
you're an incredibly isolated areas and we were once not
too many years ago, but you know you are going
to get I mean, this is happening in a scale
that is national. It's happening all over the place, unfortunately
all Oyster areas because a lot of up north where
(05:39):
the growth hasn't hidden things like that. But unfortunately it
is the way that we've grown without being able to
handle the infrastructure. So nowhere is it's going to be
one hundred safe from those massive tempest, rainstorms and things
like that. Auckland has been experiencing this problem for a
(06:01):
few decades and we all know what the beaches are
like and rivers are like after it rains and caps
in there. That is because unfortunately the infrastructure couldn't keep
up with the growth, and it's sort of like the
angulance at the bottom of the cliff. I don't know
what the solution is to make it better, but I
(06:22):
really wish we had just grown appropriately and it would
have been a better situation for us. How can we
be clean green New Zealand we have this happening all
over our you know, comforts.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Crazy, how long can you stay in business?
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Look, Kerry, this year, I've been really fortunate. I don't
know how he made it this. I mean, we're really
lucky to have lovely community support, doing a fundraiser for
us and just managing fine oysters from other areas. But
that costs money. For instance, since the dry with this
fill end of October, I've spent nearly twenty thousand dollars
(07:02):
on buying oysters in from other areas so you.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Can fulfill your orders.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Well, just so that I can my doors open to
the public coming in and orders. Unfortunately, it doesn't really
make economic sense. But we were really hoping to get
the Christmas new period in and unfortunately last three years
in November the rain which was on average about eighty
(07:27):
six mills previously, it's more like one hundred and twenty
or thirty mills a month in November now, so November
and December a weather than they used to be. And
you know, that's what we have to deal with. But
it just comes with a lot of more problems. And yeah,
I don't know, I mean we can't, we can't survive
(07:47):
with us next year. That's assure at least not my
little retail situation unless the Order Care come to the
party and help us out in terms of just giving
us something to survive until their permanent type comes through
and also maybe giving us buying helping us fund an
area where we can put our oysters from the Mahrangi
(08:07):
into an other farm and another location just to decorate
them out until they're healthy again. Options are there, but
they just don't seem to want to come to the
party for that unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
We Yeah, so what having a sewage free space for
the oyster farm?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah, there is but that we could hopefully use and
that will have to build ourselves. These areas there. Some
of us want to be able to what we call
relay oysters from one from our harbor put them into
another harbor. I mean, logistically it's quite difficult and it
does take a lot of time and money. But there
(08:50):
is a good plan that's trying to be put in
place by our wonderful present of the Maranguist Farm Association.
But you know, we can't afford to do it without assistance,
and that's the hard thing right now.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I just must be so galling.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yes, yeah, you know it's it's farming in terms of
there's always a problem, there's always weather events, there's always something.
This is a human made problem that should really never
have happened. The Maharangi was a beautiful, beautiful, clean harbor
(09:32):
for decades and decades, and this growth has only been
in the last five years or more. They knew that
it was that carrying capacity their best seage facilities five
years ago. Auckland Council allowed more growth to occur. In
the meantime, we don't know private plan changes, you know,
developers get away with it whatever. It seems to be
(09:54):
that the environment is never considered in these situations. It's
like we're a real estate economy in New Zealand with
a slide economy attached to it. So I don't know,
it's just sometimes you get the whole like, oh, you
just don't know how you can cope with it for
much longer. Or hear the rain on the roof and
(10:15):
people have heard me say that all the year and
can't sleep and things like that. But what does make
it at least a little bit okay is when people
with beautiful support, people coming and people wanting to talk
about it, people really wanting to help. Just someone smiling
and just being kind to it just makes all the
(10:37):
difference for all of us and we really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Oh Tom, Yeah, the only answer is relocation or solving
the problem, and water Care has said yeah, they won't
be completed till the end of twenty twenty six. We
really feel for the oyster growers. We've accelerated the first
stage of the growth servicing pipeline, bringing it forward by
(11:05):
two years to evidence service by the end of next year.
When it's in service, this pipeline will prevent an overflow
in similar weather to what we experienced last week, but
they cannot guarantee a hundred percent that they can fix it.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
For more from News Talks at b Listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio
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