The wastewater overflow at the top of Surrey St — from two manhole covers in the street outside Auto Repair Otago — is well known to the Dunedin City Council, which has repeatedly said fixes are planned.
Auto Repair Otago owner Jayson Carmichael said the council had closed his section of the street at 11am, meaning customers could not reach his business. He said it was obvious the overflow, which continued all day, was toxic and should have been prevented.
The offending problem featured in the Otago Daily Times in July 2022.
This reporter witnessed brown water spewing from the manhole covers and flowing rapidly round the corner into Hillside Rd, close to the ground-level front entrances of a bakery and a home brew store and heading towards Radius Care’s Fulton rest-home.
"I’m annoyed it’s been this long and the council have not done anything. They don’t see it as a problem. My next call is going to be to the council to ask if they are going to pay my staff wages as customers can’t get to us," Mr Carmichael said.
In wet weather, ageing wastewater pipes can fill with stormwater, due to cracks and wrongly routed downpipes on buildings. Any overflow in Surrey St is meant to divert into a stormwater pipe in Hillside Rd that leads to a pumping station and the harbour.
The Hillside Rd stormwater pipe’s route was referred to as a "contamination vector" in a council report from 2015 about the problem.
University of Auckland environmental engineering professor Dr Lokesh Padhye told the ODT earlier this year preventing overflows was crucial to stop a threat to public health.
Wastewater pipes leading from houses in Surrey St have been fitted with flaps to stop wastewater slopping back towards houses during flooding.
The council was approached for comment but had not responded by deadline.
