Tom Walters: Matakana Oysters co-owner on the lack of accountability from Watercare, Auckland Council for norovirus contaminated waters

North Auckland oyster farmers have been hit with a wave of uncertainty. 

Norovirus has been found in the Mahurangi River where the shellfish are grown, resulting in contaminated product and closures until further notice.  

They're blaming Watercare and Auckland Council, claiming they let sewage flows get out of control before infrastructure could catch up. 

Watercare says a new pipeline should be completed in 2028. 

Matakana Oysters co-owner Tom Walters told Mike Hosking it’s too little too late for many of the businesses, who have been begging for measures to be introduced for years. 

He says there’s been no accountability from Watercare or the council, or compensation after the growth and development of the area cost them their farms and livelihoods.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dire straight of our infrastructure is being laid bare. Just
north of Auckland at the moment, bunch of oyster farms
you'd probably read have been closed because of neuro virus
raw sewage, which was once only found in the harbor
when the weather had you know, like really been shocking.
Now basically it happens every time it rains, and the
council in the water Care know about it just doesn't
stop picking. You know, it hasn't done anything to stop
people going out of business now. Tom Walters is the

(00:20):
owner of Madican Roysters and as with us, Tom, morning
to you.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Good morning. MIT's having me on.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Not at all. So you're basically just a small sample
of a wide and neglect and a lack of planning
and all the other stuff that's gone wrong with this country.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Pretty much. The only little bit of an anomaly here
is that we produce food and the waterways that this
is happening too well the farm.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Will you be back? Do you think is there's something
happening when watercare going and we're very thorry and something
will happen by twenty twenty eight. Will you be around
in twenty twenty eight at this.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Current stage, probably not. There could be some temporary measures
that we've been begging them to put in place for
the last three years that could come in the a
few months time, maybe four or five months time, but
it's a bit too little, too late for us, and
even then that might just be flapping band aid in
a situation that might not be able to really mitigate

(01:13):
the effects because the volumes have got so out of
control in the last couple of years, especially this year.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
When they say they're sorry for you, do you think
they really care or not?

Speaker 2 (01:23):
No, not at all. The word sympathy is used. It's
never been sorry. There's no accountability. There's no compensation for
the fact that the growth of the area and development
that water Care and the council have profited from have
turned our well, have costed our farms, our livelihoods and
the environment from that. You know, there's no accountability whatsoever.

(01:48):
The stories don't matter. We can't pay our bills, we
can't feed our kids, and we're looking at the end
of the line here.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
It's a funny thing, isn't I read your social media
stuff over the weekend because I'm sort of local up
in that area, and you were talking about accountability or
lack of it. I mean, in America, there'd be some
sort of class action, wouldn't they. I mean, these people
are responsible for what they do. They haven't done it.
You're suffering because of it, and really someone should pay absolutely.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
I mean the way that they can get away with
it was very careful manipulations of discharge consents, the class
a river that people swim, fish, kayak, catiboard playing as
low recreational use and very low public health risk. It's
very very criminal in my opinion, and in all honesty,

(02:35):
you've got, yeah, you've just got such a terrible, terrible
situation where people haven't been told. The public haven't been
told until this week a few signs went out on
the wharf that there is such a healthhead that's incredibly dangerous.
Nora a virus is what we find when we do
our testing. It's an incredibly dangerous pathogen.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
All I can do is wish you well. Tom. I
feel for you Walters. He's one of many oyster farmers
in that particular. It's just north of Auckland. The upside
is the area is a boom area. People are moving
there for very obvious reasons. The infrastructure hasn't kept up,
and the whole thing's a cluster. For more from the
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(03:18):
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