treatment plant, and that resolving localised contamination events such as this is the aim of the proposed roving water quality team that porirua city council is looking to introduce in the new financial year. the beach was still considered unsafe for swimming on 30 april 2020. however, wellington water reported that they had located a plumbing fault in the catchment feeding into titahi bay beach and were working to get this fixed. titahi bay beach was closed from february until june 2020 as a result of continuing sewage pollution from multiple sources with levels of e.coli measured at 300 times the level considered safe for swimming. in january and march 2021, the ultraviolet disinfection stage at the wastewater treatment plant failed, leading to effluent that had not been disinfected being discharged at rukutane point. local residents including the tītahi bay surf life saving club complained about the failure, and also the lack of warnings given to swimmers. wwtp discharge consent renewal 2021 the discharge consent for the porirua wastewater treatment plant expired on 6 july 2020. in april 2020, wellington water (on behalf of porirua city council) submitted an application to greater wellington regional council (gwrc) for a 20 year renewal of the consent. new consent applications are normally submitted six months before the existing consent expires, but wellington water was allowed until 6 april "given the volume and complexity of information" required. the consent application and supporting documents were published by gwrc in december 2020. the consent application was formally notified to the public on 25 may 2021, and public submissions closed on 28 july 2021. in november 2021, wellington water stated that they had paused the consent application because of performance issues with the wastewater treatment plant. a webinar was arranged to provide more information for the community about the reasons for the pause. long term plan 2021-2051 in february 2020, porirua city council revealed that more than half of porirua's wastewater pipes are in a poor condition, and that it will cost close to $2 billion over the next two to three decades to bring them up to scratch. in march 2021, the porirua city council published a draft long term plan for the period 2021-2051. in the covering note for the consultation, the mayor anita baker said "there is no greater priority than investing in our critical 3 waters infrastructure - stormwater, wastewater and drinking water". the draft plan included expenditure of $800 million over 30 years on improving water infrastructure, with expenditure on wastewater forecast to be 15% of total rates. in july 2021, it was announced that the government would provide funding of $136 million from its $3.8 billion housing acceleration fund for upgrading sewerage, stormwater and other water infrastructure in porirua east. karori catchment a separate wastewater and treatment system serves the karori (western) area. treated wastewater is piped out to the south coast. hutt valley catchment wastewater from the wainuiomata valley is piped to the hutt valley through the wainuiomata tunnel, an abandoned road tunnel that was converted in 1980 to a utilities tunnel. the seaview wastewater treatment plant handles wastewater from upper hutt and lower hutt. there is an ocean outfall at pencarrow head. in march 2022, wellington water reported a leak in the pipeline to the outfall, in the seaview area. repairs required the shutdown of the outfall pipeline, and the discharge of fully treated wastewater into waiwhetu stream while the repairs were carried out. south wairarapa as at may 2022, the wastewater treatment plans serving featherston, greytown and martinborough were all non-compliant, and in need of major investment. featherston the underground wastewater pipe network in featherston has significant issues with infiltration of stormwater, and this leads to pollution when there are overflows at the treatment plant. as at 2022, the wastewater scheme for featherston discharges uv-treated wastewater to donald's creek and lake wairarapa and is operating under the terms of an extension to an expired resource consent. lake wairarapa is part of the wairarapa moana wetlands, recognised in august 2020 as a wetland of international significance under the ramsar convention. as part of efforts to reduce pollution of lake wairarapa caused by discharge of wastewater, the south wairarapa district council (swdc) has been exploring alternative options. in 2017, the council applied to the greater wellington regional council for resource consent for an alternative including disposal of treated wastewater to land, using irrigation. the council also purchased two plots of land, hodders farm and featherston golf course, covering a total of 200 hectares (490 acres), as future sites for land-based discharge of treated wastewater. however, the plan was strongly oppposed by some community groups, and in 2020 the swdc decided not to proceed with the consent application. in 2022, short-listed options for a long-term solution for wastewater disposal were reported to range in cost from $30 million to $215 million. martinborough the martinborough wastewater plant usually discharges treated effluent to land using irrigation, but can also discharge to the ruamahanga river. almost half a million litres of partially and fully treated wastewater was discharged into the ruamahanga river in two incidents in january 2020, as a result of issues at the treatment plant. under suitable conditions, discharging fully treated wastewater to the river is a consented activity. however, when the river level is low, as in this case, this type of discharge is a breach of the resource consent. a report issued in 2022 stated that the scheme was insufficient to meet compliance requirements, with breaches of consent conditions relating to the rate and quality of effluent discharge to both land and water. greytown the wastewater scheme is designed to discharge to land and to surface water. a report issued in 2022 stated that the scheme was insufficient to meet compliance requirements. lake ferry in july 2020, the wastewater system serving the settlement was damaged during forestry operations, and residents were required to restrict wastewater for two days. the system uses discharge to a field. no discharge to waterways was reported. the estimated cost of repairs was $327,000.