Napier residents reported black water months before chlorination of network
Bri Leahy, 24, has experienced skin issues since Napier's water supply was chlorinated indefinitely in May, 2017.
Bri Leahy says she has had "skin infection after skin infection" since Napier's water supply became chlorinated.
The 24-year-old Pirimai resident has experienced "horrible rashes" on her legs, arms, chest, hands, neck and stomach due to the chlorine, she said.
Have you been affected? Email andre.chumko@stuff.co.nz
She had been to the doctors for antibiotics and steroid cream, "but nothing has really worked".
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With the itching becoming unbearable, the only thing she said which helped was keeping her skin from drying out.
But sleeping was still difficult, and showering "painful".
Black water came out some Napier taps after water use in the city soared in December, but new documents show this type of water had been flowing out of taps months beforehand.
"It's horrible having to go to someone else's house to shower as they're on a private bore just so I don't erupt in painful rashes. I wouldn't mind it so much if it was just a temporary situation."
Leahy also took issue with pipes pumping out "brown" water every now and then.
Brown water became a reality for hundreds of Napier residents over the past year and beyond, documents released to Stuff under the Official Information Act confirm.
In December, during the city's water crisis, several Tamatea, Pirimai and Greenmeadows residents reported discoloured water.
Napier City Council said at the time this was due to bringing two bores urgently online, resulting in water going through different sections of the network, "which in turn dislodged some sediment".
Napier City Council water complaints by stuffnewsroom on Scribd
But new documents detail complaints about discoloured water as far back as January 2017, nearly one year before the crisis, and months before the water supply became chlorinated indefinitely from May 2017.
In January 2017, a Tamatea resident reported "dirty water". Another complainant the following day reported "black particles ... on and off for several weeks, black floaties were particularly bad today".
More complaints later that month from Greenmeadows residents detailed "very dirty water" and "dirty smelly water".
Complaints continued through 2017, with 851 lodged in total. The majority of these concerned water clarity, however some complained of odour and taste.
Reports were not limited to any particular area, with residents from Onekawa, Napier South, Marewa, Hospital Hill, Bluff Hill, Pirimai, Awatoto, Taradale, Te Awa, Bay View, Poraiti, Ahuriri, Westshore and Maraenui all lodging complaints.
Between January 1 and May 22 this year, the council received 159 water complaints, the majority about clarity.
Leahy, who lives in Pirimai, is sick of brown water and ongoing skin issues.
The council's infrastructure director Jon Kingsford said incidences of brown water had occurred in the network, "as with all networks", prior to January 2017.
"Some discoloured water is a natural byproduct of a piped water network," Kingsford said.
"During December bores were brought online that changed the flow in the network. There are many causes of discoloured water and that is one of them."
The council acknowledged "some people" found discoloured water "annoying and inconvenient" if it occurred over several days or weeks, Kingsford said.
"The number of complaints reflects, in part, the high level of work we are doing to maintain water safety and health ... via our chlorination and cleaning programme, water safety improvements and so on."
The council had been "open at all stages about the harmless biofilm discolouration [and] what causes it".
It had offered help via its "skilled customer services team" and sent maintenance staff out "as quickly as possible to flush pipes as requested".
"The quantity of complaints reflects the challenging water space we are operating in," he said.
"Napier is ... recognised as being an early adopter of the urgent recommendations from the [Government's] Havelock North Drinking Water Inquiry.
"Napier residents can have confidence that we are doing everything possible to deliver a safe drinking water supply and that to do so requires some major changes to how drinking water was operated historically."
Infrastructure director Jon Kingsford said the complaints reflected "the high level of work we are doing".
- Stuff
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