A Mission Bay couple says it has been dealing with numerous incidents of wastewater overflow behind their house since a nearby reserve was sold off to a developer.
It comes after Aucklanders late last month were warned of a "very high risk" of swimming at popular Mission Bay beach due to high levels of faecal contamination.
City water controller Watercare said it detected an overflow of wastewater in its network after a property developer poured concrete into a pipe.
Mission Bay residents Martin and Sherine Hall say it hasn't just impacted the beach - but the stormwater creek behind their house the wastewater is flowing into.
It's causing a putrid smell - so bad they say they are unable to use their backyard.
And they say this is just the tip of the iceberg, with multiple incidents of wastewater overflow in the past two years.
Angry at the latest incident, which has been ongoing for several weeks, Martin emailed Auckland City Mayor Phil Goff on November 21.
"I am writing to bring your attention to the fact that raw sewage has been flowing in a stream at the back of my property for five days now and going into Mission Bay.
"Watercare solution is not to fix the problem but rather to put in a pump and try to divert the sewage into a manhole.
"The residents in our neighbourhood are sick and tired of council incompetence in dealing with the situation."
Goff did not respond but a response from Watercare services chief executive Jon Lamonte, seen by Newshub, apologised for the "unpleasant disruption".
"I believe our CCTV inspections found the network was indeed blocked by concrete. As an immediate response, we have worked closely with Auckland Council’s Pollution Response Team to sandbag the waterway downstream, containing the wastewater and pumping it back into the wastewater network via a nearby manhole," Lamonte responded on November 22.
On November 25, Martin also received an email from Watercare head of external and strategic relations Brent Evans.
"As per standard protocols we met with the Auckland Council pollution response team and a pragmatic short-term decision was made to use a section of the open channel as the simplest and quickest way to deal with the immediate problem," Evans said.
"We acknowledge this has caused some odour as time has passed for which we apologise."
Two days later, on November 27, Safeswin put a 'black pin' on Mission Bay - meaning a very high public health risk for swimmers due to faecal contamination.
The Halls were fuming it took that long to resolve the matter.
"It's crazy," Martin told Newshub. "It just makes me sick."
"Our house is really all we have," Sherine added. "Yes, we live in a nice area but that's all we have. We've worked hard all our lives and we're still working hard to pay our mortgage and then suddenly, we can't use our backyard."
Ongoing issues
The Halls say this latest incident was just one of a number of recent issues. They say whenever there's heavy rain, wastewater overflow usually follows.
They say it started happening when Auckland Council sold nearby public green space Nihill Reserve a few years ago.
The reserve is a 10m strip of land that the stormwater stream runs through.
"It's a very small reserve - no one can see it because it's in between the houses and we told them, 'Please don't sell it because the water drains in the reserve,'" Sherine said.
"All of a sudden, we found that it's sold and the developer… cut down all the trees in the reserve."
"And then it started flooding really badly," Martin added.
Since then, overflowing wastewater was an issue every time there's heavy rain, the couple said.
"It's just been a nightmare," Martin said.
Why was the reserve sold?
Auckland Council says the reserve was sold because it was a "steep landlocked site designated as a reserve with no useful purpose and no access other than from the adjoining sites".
A spokesperson said the revocation was publicly notified in 2017 and "an independent commissioner was appointed to consider objections at the time".
There were six objections to the reserve being sold, the spokesperson said.
But, "The reserve status was uplifted in 2017 and the site was sold to an adjoining owner".
When will the issue be fixed?
In a statement to Newshub, Watercare head of delivery Sharon Danks said its focus was on resolving the situation rather than identifying the person or company that caused the damage.
"Since mid-November, we have had a dedicated team working to resolve the issue. "Unfortunately, the fix is not straightforward. We are unable to remove the concrete from the pipe and therefore we are preparing to install three new pipes as well as construct a new manhole to restore the network.
"Currently, we are finalising our methodology. As the public wastewater pipes and assets run within private properties, it's important we protect and maintain safe access to these properties."
Danks said the works were expected to take at least a few weeks.
"In the meantime, we have been working to reduce the impact of the wastewater overflow. Initially, we were using localised pumping to suck the wastewater from the local stream, which we had sandbagged.
"Now, we have set up an overland diversion involving pumps conveying flows from manhole to manhole as an alternative. We know the noise of the pumps, and associated generators were a frustration for the community.
"Therefore, we've worked with Vector and Northpower to redivert power to our pumps from a temporary public power supply and remove the need for generators, with the intent to reduce the noise."
