Waitomo District Council were notified on an oily film on the surface of the Mangaokewa Stream, Te Kuiti on Monday 17 July 2017. A second notification was received on Friday 24 July.

WDC acted immediately to notify Waikato Regional Council and investigated the origin of the spill. We noticed an oily sheen at the Lawrence Street storm water pipe outlet.  Our further investigations could not identify the source of the contamination.

All relevant information has been supplied to the Waikato Regional Council who is the controlling authority of the rivers, lakes and water ways in the area. The Waikato Regional Council has a dedicated incident response team that deals with such incidents.

Waikato Regional Council has advised that it looked to be approximately four litres of diesel spilt from an unknown source and that the amount of spillage there would not be enough to cause any environmental impact.

Any spill needs to be avoided, as it may have an environmental impact. The correct procedure is to safely dispose of unwanted contaminants by taking it to the landfill or to contact entities that can advise.

If your business has an oil separator installed, good practice would be to inspect these systems regularly to ensure that it is sound and operating as per specifications.