It is a health hazard and it pollutes the harbour. Yet nothing has been done about the sewage problem at Blanket Bay and Curles Point on Dunedin's West Harbour for several years.
The Dunedin City Council has been in denial, despite complaints and submissions.
Finally, residents have been taken seriously.
Finally, council staff investigated "the stink" and acknowledged the matter. Finally, moves are under way to fix the problem.
Several septic tanks are failing, many of the sections are small and drainage is poor.
The report which went to a council committee this week put it like this: "There is a demonstrated health risk caused by septic tank failure . . .
Five out of seven on-site systems examined at Blanket Bay leak into the water table or to the creek which discharges into the harbour."
One reaction has been to point out that if dairy farmers were responsible they would be prosecuted by the Otago Regional Council.
Why has that not happened?
And why have the pleas of the residents, and of the Chalmers Community Board at several annual plan meetings, been ignored?
One reason is that numbers are small and the tiny community not pushy - they are thus more easily ignored.
Under consideration at Blanket Bay are only seven houses, with potential for seven more, and at Curles Point five.
Another is that costs to the city are large.
Connecting to Dunedin's sewerage system, one of the primary options, could cost about $480,000, plus $3000 a year for pumping station and reticulation operating and maintenance costs.
One must wonder, as well, at the inherent way bureaucracies can sidestep problems.
Council staff have also had several big sewage issues to contend with.
And, once decisions were made in the late 1990s to deny connection into a new sewage pipe, elements of self justification might have come into play.
In 1999 and 2000, a pipe was installed to send Port Chalmers and West Harbour sewage to Tahuna.
The Sawyers Bay treatment plant was then decommissioned.
Not surprisingly, the residents of Blanket Bay and Curles Point saw what was happening and thought they would be included.
It was claimed connection was impractical for this small number of homes - awkwardly sited below the pipe - despite expensive extensions to Deborah Bay.
Subsequently, the council has claimed the pipe is too small and the overall sewer system old and of poor construction.
The pipe is under pressure because too much stormwater mixes with the sewage after heavy rain.
But without the will there is no way, and nothing happened.
Consultation with residents should start soon, based on the city covering 80% of the capital costs and residents 20%, plus on-property expenses.
Even the 20% could amount to roughly $3900 to $6400 for the main capital charge, money well spent for those who can find it.
The Kakanui and Moeraki experiences show the pain can lead to considerably more valuable properties.
But the expense, especially with additional on-property costs, is tough for those on low incomes.
At least Dunedin usually spreads the costs over all the city, such as for the Allanton scheme.
Waitaki communities are faced with finding all the money, apart from possible Government subsidies, themselves.
The small communities of Clutha have also faced huge burdens, ameliorated in the last year by a "harmonisation" subsidy across the district on the same 80% to 20% split.
Funding schemes would be impossible for Benhar and Tokoiti, near Milton, without district-wide support.
Pollution levels in the precious Otago Harbour have improved markedly, and in 2000 the council crowed about the diversion of treated Port Chalmers sewage.
How disappointing then that the problem at Blanket Bay was ignored.
The city simply did not want to know.
The community is now much more intolerant of pollution, and the Otago Regional Council is reflecting this in its firmer treatment of dairy farmers and fresh warnings to the Dunedin City Council.
The city, for its part, has no choice but to push ahead vigorously with Blanket Bay, and in the wider scheme, the separation of sewage and stormwater.
After heavy rain, stormwater gushes into the sewers and sewage infiltrates the stormwater. Cleaning up these issues is a core council role, and as such must have priority over many projects and much of the council's other spending.
