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Not boxing clever
From our file marked ‘Ridiculously superfluous packaging’ comes this recent example – a giant cardboard sleeve, almost twice the size of a recycling bin, which turned out to contain only the small, white flat-pack carton sample seen at the bottom left of the photo. Words fail us.
Unclear waters
There was a refreshingly honest response from Watercare staffers when asked how Three Waters might affect them and the service they offer last month. Answering a question at the annual Omaha Wastewater Treatment Plant community liaison group meeting, environmental care manager Nathaniel Wilson confessed that at this stage, he hadn’t a clue what would happen. “I learn more from Newsroom and RNZ than from briefings,” he said. However, he did say Watercare would still be bound by all the same resource consent conditions, and there should be economies of scale when planning and installing infrastructure. “The only thing that will change for you is your water bills will go up,” he added.
Community commitment commended
Omaha, Whangateau and Matakana area residents scored brownie points with Watercare last month, simply by turning up to its annual community liaison group meeting for the Omaha Wastewater Treatment Plant. Environmental care manager Nathaniel Wilson said it was good to see the eight or so people who turned out on a dark, wet night to Point Wells Bowling Club to hear about the plant’s operation and performance.
“We don’t get many people to any of our other meetings,” he said, somewhat wistfully. “It’s really hard in other communities, they are a lot less engaged than you are.”
Sign of the times
Handy advice from this sign in Spindler Road, south of Wellsford, last week after the heavy rains that blocked roads and caused flooding throughout the district. Local resident Michelle Carmichael snapped the scene and said that while the swamped road sign might raise a smile, of more serious concern was the fact that this was a tributary stream leading down from the site of Waste Management’s proposed new regional landfill in Wayby Valley. Opponents fear this kind of increasingly common weather event will overwhelm any safety measures installed at the tip and cause leachate to flow into the Hoteo River and the Kaipara Harbour.
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