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 (00:06):
You're listening to the Kerry Wood and Morning's podcast from
News Talks head be.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Weeks after a twelve hundred kubic 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
(00:32):
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 spill 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 (00:52):
Good morning, Carrie.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
It must be gutting.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Ah.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
It's been a gutting year and it seems to be
the gutting cherry on top of it at the moment.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Now you can't stay there, can you? Wow?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Not really if this is going to continue for another
year or two. Before they actually brought the problem out permanently.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, they're not going to be able to do it
in the next six months. You've already had two spills.
You had them last year and oh look, aren't you
worried about reputational damage to the to the brand?
Speaker 3 (01:29):
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 Maharingi Harbor is really
in tatters. 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,
(01:51):
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 (01:58):
No, and you've got water here. Who will Who will
compensate you when it's their fault when it's a technical
failure but not required to compensate for it rainfall?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
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
(02:33):
or points, 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
(02:54):
just do it for the better good of trying to
fix the infrastructure up and where the sort of ones
caught out. And soo's the environment and everyone who wants
to use our beautiful river and harbors.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So what do you recommend? What would be your ideal solution, Well, it.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Would 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 problem areas and walk with which they've
tried to fix up. But now it seems like they've
actually gone gone, well, we're not going to do anything
(03:36):
else 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
(03:57):
stewages coming into the river and harbor. Another thing I
would love someone to do is actually look into how
these resources can these are done, how they liaison with
the public, with people like us, with EWE, with the
local boards. Because it feels a little bit hard when
(04:18):
we never got told in twenty twenty two or twenty
three that they are going for what was too wet?
Were the schools a year to two hundred, It seems
ridiculous that they seem to have too much power to
be allowed to do that. But yeah, that's what I
had liked done, at least in the short term.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
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
(04:58):
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
A very.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
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 in all Oyster
(05:32):
areas because a lot of up north where the growth
hasn't hid and 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.
(05:53):
Auckland has been experiencing this problem for a few decades
and we all know what the beaches are like and
rivers are like after it rains and caps in. There
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
(06:14):
is to make it better, but I really wish we
had just grown appropriately and it would have been a
better situations for us. How can we be clean green
New Zealand we have this happening all over our you know, comforts.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Crazy, how long can you stay in business?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Look, carry 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 communities 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 on
(06:57):
buying oysters in from other areas so.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
You can fulfill your orders well, just so that.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
I can keep my doors open for the public coming
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 six mills previously, it's
(07:24):
more like one hundred and twenty or thirty mills a
month in November now, so November and December or weather
than they used to be. And you know, that's all
we have to deal with. But it just comes with
a lot of more problems. And yeah, I don't know,
I mean can't we can't survive with us next year,
that's for sure, at least not my little retail situation
(07:46):
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 into another farm
and another location just to decorate them out until they're
(08:07):
healthy again. Options are there, but they just don't seem
to want to come to the party for that unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
We Yeah, so what having a sewage free space for
the oyster farm?
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Yeah, there is but that we could hopefully use and
that we'll 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
(08:45):
is a good plan that's try and be put in
place by our wonderful present of the Marangus Association. But
you know, we can't afford to do it without assistance,
and that's the hard thing right now.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I just must be so galling.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
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 Maharani was a beautiful, beautiful, clean harbor
(09:27):
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 vestage facilities.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Five years ago.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
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 that the
environment is never considered in these situations. It's like we're
a real estate economy in New Zealand with the slide
economy attached to it. So I don't know, it's just
(10:03):
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 people have
heard me say that all the year, and caps sleep
and things like that. But what does make it at
least a little bit okay is when people look with
beautiful support, people coming in, people wanting to talk about it,
(10:26):
people really wanting to help, just someone smiling and just
being kind to it. Just makes all the difference for
all of us and we really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
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
(11:00):
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 one hundred percent that they can fix it.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
For more from carry Wood and Mornings, Listen live to
news Talks at b from nine am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Kerry Wood and Morning's podcast from
News Talks head be.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Weeks after a twelve hundred kubic 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
(00:32):
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 spill 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 (00:52):
Good morning, Carrie.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
It must be gutting.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Ah.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
It's been a gutting year and it seems to be
the gutting cherry on top of it at the moment.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Now you can't stay there, can you? Wow?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Not really if this is going to continue for another
year or two. Before they actually brought the problem out permanently.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, they're not going to be able to do it
in the next six months. You've already had two spills.
You had them last year and oh look, aren't you
worried about reputational damage to the to the brand?
Speaker 3 (01:29):
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 Maharingi Harbor is really
in tatters. 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,
(01:51):
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 (01:58):
No, and you've got water here. Who will Who will
compensate you when it's their fault when it's a technical
failure but not required to compensate for it rainfall?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
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
(02:33):
or points, 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
(02:54):
just do it for the better good of trying to
fix the infrastructure up and where the sort of ones
caught out. And soo's the environment and everyone who wants
to use our beautiful river and harbors.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So what do you recommend? What would be your ideal solution, Well, it.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Would 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 problem areas and walk with which they've
tried to fix up. But now it seems like they've
actually gone gone, well, we're not going to do anything
(03:36):
else 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
(03:57):
stewages coming into the river and harbor. Another thing I
would love someone to do is actually look into how
these resources can these are done, how they liaison with
the public, with people like us, with EWE, with the
local boards. Because it feels a little bit hard when
(04:18):
we never got told in twenty twenty two or twenty
three that they are going for what was too wet?
Were the schools a year to two hundred, It seems
ridiculous that they seem to have too much power to
be allowed to do that. But yeah, that's what I
had liked done, at least in the short term.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
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
(04:58):
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
A very.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
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 in all Oyster
(05:32):
areas because a lot of up north where the growth
hasn't hid and 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.
(05:53):
Auckland has been experiencing this problem for a few decades
and we all know what the beaches are like and
rivers are like after it rains and caps in. There
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
(06:14):
is to make it better, but I really wish we
had just grown appropriately and it would have been a
better situations for us. How can we be clean green
New Zealand we have this happening all over our you know, comforts.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Crazy, how long can you stay in business?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Look, carry 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 communities 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 on
(06:57):
buying oysters in from other areas so.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
You can fulfill your orders well, just so that.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
I can keep my doors open for the public coming
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 six mills previously, it's
(07:24):
more like one hundred and twenty or thirty mills a
month in November now, so November and December or weather
than they used to be. And you know, that's all
we have to deal with. But it just comes with
a lot of more problems. And yeah, I don't know,
I mean can't we can't survive with us next year,
that's for sure, at least not my little retail situation
(07:46):
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 into another farm
and another location just to decorate them out until they're
(08:07):
healthy again. Options are there, but they just don't seem
to want to come to the party for that unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
We Yeah, so what having a sewage free space for
the oyster farm?
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Yeah, there is but that we could hopefully use and
that we'll 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
(08:45):
is a good plan that's try and be put in
place by our wonderful present of the Marangus Association. But
you know, we can't afford to do it without assistance,
and that's the hard thing right now.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I just must be so galling.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
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 Maharani was a beautiful, beautiful, clean harbor
(09:27):
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 vestage facilities.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Five years ago.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
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 that the
environment is never considered in these situations. It's like we're
a real estate economy in New Zealand with the slide
economy attached to it. So I don't know, it's just
(10:03):
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 people have
heard me say that all the year, and caps sleep
and things like that. But what does make it at
least a little bit okay is when people look with
beautiful support, people coming in, people wanting to talk about it,
(10:26):
people really wanting to help, just someone smiling and just
being kind to it. Just makes all the difference for
all of us and we really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
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
(11:00):
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 one hundred percent that they can fix it.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
For more from carry Wood and Mornings, Listen live to
news Talks at b from nine am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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