Wastewater treatment plant failures leading to discharge of untreated wastewater...The Moa Point WWTP failure

 Published last month (August, 2026) a unique report exploring the operational reasons for one of the largest wastewater treatment plant failures ever recorded – the Moa Point WWTP in Wellington New Zealand on the 4th February 2026.  Flooding severely damaged the main unit processes, in particular  the primary, secondary (biological) treatment and UV disinfection, and also its electrical and control systems. Six months later the plant is still only operational in preliminary mode, with the screened wastewater discharged via a 1.8 km long sea outfall. According to Gregory Walligora (@lordmacgreg on X), who has been documenting this case, 70,000 m3 of untreated wastewater has been discharged to sea each day since the 4th February, equivalent to 15 million m3 to the end of August.  


 The key finding of the report is the lack of resilience in plant design and operation, although it also showed it was impossible to take out key unit processes for repair without critical loss in treatment capability.  The issue here is that we need to be more aware of the fragility and vulnerability of our treatment plants and their lack of resilience  to climate change norms such as increased flows and flooding.  Gregory Waligora has also produced a fascinating leader board of WWTP failures in terms of volume of untreated wastewater discharged.  Coming in second is the Warsaw’s Czajka Wastewater Treatment Plant failure over a 4 month period in 2020, in which 11 million m3 of wastewater was discharged into the Vistula River.  Check out Gregory’s X stream.  



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