Moa Point

Moa Point
Suburb
Aerial view of Moa Point, showing the airport to the left and the sewage treatment plant on the hill above the houses.
Country	New Zealand
City	Wellington City
Electoral ward	Motukairangi/Eastern Ward
Airport(s)	Wellington International Airport

Rongotai	(Wellington Airport)	Strathmore Park
Lyall Bay	Moa Point	Breaker Bay
	(Cook Strait)

Moa Point is a small suburb in Wellington, New Zealand, situated on the south coast between Lyall Bay to the west and Tarakena Bay to the east. As of 2015 there were 21 households in the suburb.^[1]

Toponymy

The suburb got its name in 1926 when the estate of HD Crawford sold 39 sections for a new housing area to be known as 'Moa Point Estate', described as "one of the warmest, sunniest and most sheltered positions in Wellington".^[2][3] The hill behind the housing estate was called Moa Point HIll: moa bones and gizzard stones and evidence of Māori occupation had been found in the area in the nineteenth century.^[4][5]

History

The hill was flattened during construction of the Rongotai Aerodrome from the 1930s to the 1950s, with spoil used for reclamation in Lyall Bay and for other road works.^[6][7][8] Some houses at the northern end of Moa Point were relocated or removed and the promontory that existed there is now under the airport.

Environment

Little blue penguins nest along Wellington's south coast, including at Moa Point where nesting boxes have been provided by Forest and Bird under their 'Places for Penguins' project.^[9][10]

Hue te Taka peninsula is a rocky platform about 500m long extending from Moa Point which becomes an island at high tide. It is home to penguins and many species of native plants.^[11][12]

Wastewater treatment plant

Moa Point is known for its wastewater treatment plant, which treats sewage from the majority of Wellington city. From 1899 until 1989, raw sewage was discharged into the inter-tidal zone at Moa Point. A council proposal to continue to discharge untreated sewage at Moa Point with only milliscreening became a public controversy, and was a significant factor in the defeat of the incumbent mayor, Ian Lawrence by Jim Belich in the 1986 Wellington City mayoral election.^[13] Milliscreening was added in 1989, as part of a transition to a land-based secondary treatment system.^[14]

In 1995 Wellington City Council contracted British company Anglian Water International to provide a sewage treatment plant for Wellington at Moa Point, at a cost of $149 million.^[15] The facility opened officially in September 1998.^[16] The treatment process has several steps: liquid is screened to remove solids, then goes through settling tanks. After treatment with an agent to separate out bacteria, the liquid is treated with ultraviolet light to eliminate most remaining bacteria and viruses. The treated water is then discharged to the ocean in Cook Strait via a 1.8-kilometre-long (1.1 mi) marine outfall pipe.^[17]

The plant can discharge up to 260,000 cubic metres of wastewater per day.^[18] During periods of heavy rainfall the volume of wastewater coming in sometimes gets too high and the plant may need to discharge partly treated sewage into the ocean.^[19][18] If this happens warning notices are displayed at Moa Point and Lyall Bay and are notified online.^[20]

In May 2021, Wellington City Council approved a 10 year plan that included expenditure of $2.7 billion on water pipe maintenance and upgrades in Wellington city, and an additional $147 to $208 million for plant upgrades at the Moa Point wastewater treatment plant.^[21]

In July 2023 Wellington City Council announced that it had signed a contract with two companies, McConnell Dowell Constructors Ltd and HEB Construction Ltd, to build new sludge minimisation infrastructure at the wastewater treatment plant.  Sludge is mixed with general waste and buried in landfill, so minimising the amount produced is valuable. The Council expects that the new facility will reduce wastewater sludge by 60 to 80 percent and reduce carbon emissions created by the treatment process by 60 percent.^[22]

Animal shelter

Wellington City Council operates an animal shelter located on the south coast adjacent to Moa Point. The facility was constructed in 1968, and provides temporary shelter for a wide range of animals, mostly impounded and stray dogs, but also including wild birds and escaped domestic animals such as pigs.^{[23] [24]}

See also

• Water supply and sanitation in the Wellington region

References

1. Rottmann, Sea (16 October 2015). "Moa Point – why it's a special place". Wellington Scoop. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
2. "Property Sale : Moa Point sections". New Zealand Times. 9 December 1926. Retrieved 10 November 2022 – via Paperspast.
3. "Plan of the Moa Point estate, Lyall Bay east / [surveyed by ] Seaton, Sladden & Pavitt". ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
4. National Library NZ on The Commons (11 September 2015), Hector McLeod & Co :Miramar or Whataitai (Hataitai) in Maori times. No 3. Miramar series. 1907. [Postcard]., retrieved 10 November 2022
5. Christie, H. M. (24 September 1904). "Curios from Miramar". New Zealand Times. Retrieved 13 November 2022 – via Paperspast.
6. "Moa Point Hill: Spoil for the causeway". Evening Post. 16 December 1937. Retrieved 10 November 2022 – via Paperspast.
7. "Moa Point hill". Evening Post. 6 December 1940. Retrieved 10 November 2022 – via Paperspast.
8. "Rongotai Airport may be completed in 1960". Press. 27 December 1956. Retrieved 11 November 2022 – via Paperspast.
9. "Places for Penguins, Wellington | Forest and Bird". www.forestandbird.org.nz. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
10. Woolf, Amber-Leigh (20 August 2018). "Little blue penguins settle at Lyall Bay – beside dog-friendly beach". Stuff. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
11. Jackman, Amy (29 September 2010). "Lyall Bay peninsula renamed". Stuff. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
12. "Hue te Taka (Moa Point) coastal plant community". collections.tepapa.govt.nz. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
13. Macdonald, Nikki (18 September 2015). "Obituary: Sir James Belich - from ad-man to capital clean-up merchant". Stuff. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
14. Eagar, Stephen H. (September 1999). "Distribution of Ostracoda around a coastal sewer outfall: A case study from Wellington, New Zealand". Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. 29 (3): 257–264. doi:10.1080/03014223.1999.9517596. ISSN 0303-6758.
15. Zatorski, Lydia (7 October 1997). "Mini sewerage plant running". Evening Post (3rd ed.) – via Proquest Australia & New Zealand Newsstream.
16. "Treatment plant cleans up coastline". Evening Post (3rd ed.). 15 September 1998 – via Proquest Australia & New Zealand Newsstream.
17. "Wellington Water advises a Moa Point wastewater treatment plant clarifier is being repaired ..." www.wellingtonwater.co.nz. 23 June 2022. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
18. "Moa Point Wastewater Treatment Plant – Wellington Water". www.wellingtonwater.co.nz. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
19. "Heavy rainfall discharges by year". Wellington City Council. 25 May 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
20. "Wellington Harbour warning after sewage discharge". NZ Herald. 29 December 2010. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
21. George, Damian (27 May 2021). . Archived from the original on 28 May 2021.
22. "Wellington City Council signs deal to build sewage sludge treatment plant". RNZ. 6 July 2023. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
23. "Animal shelter upgrade goes to the dogs… and a peacock". Wellington City Council. 19 February 2021. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
24. Macdonald, Laura (31 October 2012). "Wellington dog owners being hit in the pocket". Stuff. Retrieved 13 November 2022.