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Tuesday • SEPTEMBER 30 • 2014
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VOL 26 • NO.38
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Family’s trauma over sodden grave A local family in grief over the death of a father and husband were shocked to arrive at the Waiuku cemetery last week to find the grave awash with water. An emotional Susan Hughes, pictured left with family friend Peter Shadbolt, said it was awful to see mourners standing in the grave bucketing water out before the ceremony for her father, Doug Field. Reverend Les Ferguson, who has officiated funerals at the cemetery for 16 years says the situation should have been avoided, and says it’s ironic that senior council staff are on hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, but there doesn’t appear to be enough money to buy a pump for Waiuku Cemetery. Susan and other mourners have written to council demanding answers, and says she was angry to be told by contractors at the cemetery that they had been waiting since 8am that morning for a pump. “They knew it was full of water, they should have done something,” she said. “I would have thought any normal human being would have thought about the trauma my family endured watching water bucketed out and seeing the muddy sludge I had to leave my Dad in.”
Catherine Moore, Manager Auckland Cemeteries, said the situation was very unfortunate, at a difficult time for the family, and said heavy rain earlier in the week, plus the low-lying nature of the Waiuku Cemetery meant some groundwater had seeped into the grave. The funeral party itself had arrived earlier than expected at the cemetery, but had phoned earlier to notify contractors of the earlier arrival. She acknowledged that council contractors working to empty the grave with a bucket when mourners arrived wasn’t a good look, and said there is not a pump specifically available for Waiuku. She said there is a pump available at Manukau, but it is expected that contractors have access to a pump if required. She said part of the investigation into the situation would be to discuss with contractors what equipment they have available. For Susan Hughes, it’s too late. She says she feels pain and guilt over the burial, but hopes some good will come from raising her concerns. “I just hope that this means that no other family has to ever go through this,” she says.
Lab tests raise new concerns over council dumping Concerns by Pukekohe residents over what they believed was illegal dumping of waste by Auckland Council contractors have been heightened by independent laboratory tests. The tests of sediment from the site show significantly higher levels of heavy metals than on nearby land. The dumping of water as part of the council’s sediment removal activities took place in mid-July in Rowle Road, Pukekohe. Local resident Ganges Singh took photographs of the truck dumping the waste, (pictured at right), and contacted Auckland Council. Auckland Council’s Manager Stormwater, Craig McIlroy said the dumping was legal, and that “the contractor discharged decant water (essentially
clean water with minimal sediment or contaminants). The remaining level of contaminant in the discharged water was 0.1 per cent.” Mr McIlroy added that the contaminant level was very low “and far less than the contaminant run-off from the adjacent market gardening activities.” But Pukekohe Citizens and Ratepayers Chairman Ian McDougall says he had samples of the sediment at the dumping site tested, and those tests show substantially higher levels of heavy metals than on nearby agricultural land. He had a further test done on the agricultural land to compare the heavy metal levels. He says the dumped sediment was disgusting, and smelled terrible, add-
ing that it looked nothing like the ‘clean water’ suggested by council. Arsenic and Cadmium levels were similar in both independent tests, but Chromium levels were double at the dump site, Copper levels were a third higher, and lead levels were three times higher at the dump site. Nickel levels were more than double, and Zinc levels in the samples were nine times higher where the storm water sediment was dumped than at the nearby field. Mr McDougall says he also questions why, if there was nothing wrong with the dumping, that the stream it was dumped into was cleared by council contractors shortly after complaints about the incident. Continued on page 3.
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