Whitebait was not the only thing running in the Grey River this morning as fishermen dodged an oil or diesel slick -- followed by a dump of raw sewage.
By 9 o'clock most of those whitebaiting from the rocks on the Blaketown side had their nets out of the water as they watched the dross float by.
The West Coast Regional Council had staff on site and was investigating the fuel spill, although it was not immediately clear where the oil or diesel came from. When the Greymouth Star got there the worst had been flushed out to sea, but a sheen on the water closest to the rocks was clearly visible.
The Star spoke to a large number of whitebaiters, who would not be named for a variety of reasons, but the air was blue with expletives.
"It's only a quarter of what it was," one said of the fuel slick.
Another further downriver was furious at the sewage discharge, which apparently was the result of a valve problem.
"They've opened it up as the tide is coming in. They should do it in the middle of the night."
Another raged that it was "piss poor" and some said if he had the mayor's phone number he would have got him down to see for himself.
Someone else said the fuel came down the river, presumably from the port area, for a good hour or so.
Grey District Council utilities engineer Kurtis Perrin-Smith was on the riverbank about 11am and said he was trying to get to the bottom of it. Sewage was normally only discharged into the river during high rainfall, and on dry days it was meant to be piped to the Preston Road treatment station.
An hour later, assets manager Mel Sutherland said a valve further up the system was incorrectly closed off.
"This has been discovered by staff this morning and immediately rectified now. We will be notifying the regional council of the discharge and will also be investigating why the valve was incorrectly shut off," Mr Sutherland said.
Whitebaiters also complained about surprise sewage discharges in the Grey River last season.
- by Laura Mills