We’re asking Mangawhai house owners and residents on the wastewater system to flush water through their drains, toilets and showers and prevent gases from backing up into their homes.

Recent monitoring at pumpstations has detected elevated levels of hydrogen sulphide in the pipes coming from houses and the wastewater network. Hydrogen sulphide is the key odour contaminant from wastewater systems – in low concentrations it has the distinctive smell of rotten eggs.

While elevated levels of the gas in the wastewater system is not unusual, we’re asking residents, and in particular bach owners, to run water through their systems and make sure their p-traps are working as they should.

• If you have been away for a while and smell odour, open up your windows and doors when you arrive, and do a quick run of all your taps, showers, baths, flush the toilets.

• Same applies if you have a bathroom or laundry that hasn’t been used for a while. Running water (just for a short time) ensures your p-trap is full of water and working as an airtight seal, blocking any gases from coming back into your house.

Don’t know what a p-trap is? The p-trap is the u-bend part of the pipe found under sinks, showers, baths and laundry tubs. A p-trap is designed to always hold a small amount of water in the bend of the pipe, creating a seal or plug which prevents foul odours and gas from entering homes.

Toilets have an s-bend which act in a similar way. Each time you run water, flush toilets, take a shower, the p-trap is filled with new water.

Read more: https://www.kaipara.govt.nz/.../412-Mangawhai-residents...