Victor Waters, Journalist

A group of oyster farmers in the north of Auckland have reached their breaking point over sewage overflow and want the government to intervene.

The 10 marine farms have been in a seven-year battle with Watercare to stop sewage overflowing into the Mahurangi Harbour, which contaminates their oyster crops.

At least one farmer is having to close their business, while many fear they will not survive the year, despite a pipe upgrade in September that will provide a short-term fix.

At this stage, a long-term solution to the piping problem on Elizabeth Street in Warkworth is not expected until 2028.

Oysters help remove pollution in water, but this means there is a high risk of food poisoning if they were eaten. Photo: Nick Monro

Minister for Oceans and Fisheries Shane Jones said Watercare had "failed in their statutory duty of care to the Mahurangi oyster farmers".

"They are solely responsible for the collapse of the infrastructure that has ruined the businesses of the Mahurangi oyster farmers.

"I am astounded that this colossus will not step up to the plate and offer financial compensation to these marine farmers, who through no fault of their own are now penalised because of the failure of water care," he said.

An oyster farm in the Mahurangi Harbour. Photo: Nick Monro

Jones said he was looking into what levers the government had over Watercare.

"There are many areas where the Auckland City Council wants the assistance of central government. The Auckland Council is in control of Watercare, and it seems extraordinary that we're expected as central government to deliver positive outcomes for the Auckland City Council, yet one of their organisations is driving local marine farmers to penury and offering no assistance, no relief whatsoever.

"Watercare is a well-heeled organisation, they're not short of capital. What they're short of, though, is corporate responsibility and obviously, don't place any importance on the maintenance of a social licence to continue to operate.

"Their organisation should be renamed Zero Care. But more importantly, this is a comment on their culture," said the minister.

"They know and they've known for a long time about how weak the piping system is around Mahurangi. They've chosen to find every excuse in the world to delay fixing it up and now the oyster farmers are the casualties of this corporate delinquency."

An oyster farm in the Mahurangi Harbour. Photo: Nick Monro

According to the farmers, the pipe network was originally scheduled to be upgraded in 2021, but never was.

RNZ has asked Watercare for a response to the minister's comments and the marine farmers' concerns.

The issue of wastewater overflowing into the Mahurangi Harbour has been ongoing since 2018, when farmers first raised it with Watercare.

Because oysters are filter feeders, they help remove the pollution in the harbour but by doing so, there was a high risk of food poisoning if they were eaten.

Mahurangi Oysters farmer Jim Aitken. Photo: Nick Monro

Mahurangi Oysters farmer Jim Aitken said his own health working the oyster farms was also at risk.

"Yeah, we're cleaning up their mess and we're not receiving any support for literally working in human waste," he said.

"This farm is the exception, but most of these farms, you are in knee-deep in mud, waist-deep in water, getting cut on sharp oysters, nails, all kinds of things, and now we have to worry about potentially getting quite serious infections from sewage.

"When we get 9mm of rain - which is happening almost weekly - that should not be triggering a spill so easily, and consistently too. Like it's not a random thing, and we're told that the pipes that are connecting storm to wastewater have been disconnected, which should never have been connected in the first place.

"But the increase has tripled, so far it's on track to quadruple the number of spills because we've already doubled what we did last year, what they did last year for spills, it's pretty astounding that there isn't even an increase in rainfall compared to last year."

"We're wondering what's going on here, why has it suddenly increased so dramatically, is another question too, what we're trying to figure out," said Aitken.

Lynette Dunn of Orata Marine Oysters Photo: Nick Monro

Lynette Dunn of Orata Marine Oysters said she had not been able to sell any locally grown produce since Christmas and had to approach Work and Income for financial support.

She said the members of Parliament needed to take action to save the estimated $8 million oyster industry in the Mahurangi Harbour.

"They need to start hammering the Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, telling him we need some action. The government's the only person, or the only identity that's going to take Watercare on."

Dunn's family business has run for 30 years and has overcome many adversities, but she said this has been the toughest period.

"Every day I've been crying, you know? I think to myself, like, I'm not going to cry today, you know? Because it's not our fault, it's their fault and they're not doing anything about it.

"You wail awake at night time, thinking, 'okay, how much sewage is going to go into the harbour', you know?

"We used to have, like, 5 or 10 mils of rain, and we'd be closed for fresh water, or 50 to 60 mils of rain, we'll get closed for 10 days for fresh water, but now we're getting closed 28 days constantly on 5 mils of rain.

"In some instances, there's no rain and there's sewage spills, but this last one was 670 cubic metres of sewage pumped into the harbour on Thursday. You know, like, the water in the streets of Warkworth, running down their pipes are overflowing and sewage coming out," she said.

This story was originally published by RNZ