Poo levels lurking beneath Wellington's diving platform appear to be unrelated to the wastewater failure that closed down a chunk of the central city. A 1930s-era wastewater pipe collapsed two Fridays ago leading to about two olympic-sized swimming pools worth of wastewater being discharged into Wellington Harbour over two days while Wellington Water scrambled to stop the flow. Wellington Water spokesman Alex van Paassen said faecal coliforms counts in those areas remained at not-safe-to-swim levels but it appeared the issue was unrelated to the collapsed wastewater pipe. It seemed to be a separate issue in the pipes that meant wastewater was overflowing into storm water pipes and being discharged into the harbour. Wellington's pipes were coming to the end of their lives and "how we deal with it is still being considered".

Source: Stuff December 29, 2019 05:03 UTC