A rāhui put in place over parts of Lake Taupō and the upper Waikato R iver after a wastewater pipe collapsed, sending an estimated 800,000 litres of wastewater into the lake, has been lifted.
The rāhui was placed by the Tūwharetoa Māori Trust Board on July 5, two days after the incident, to ensure the Tapuaeharuru Bay and the Waikato River to Aratiatia could recover.
One of the first priorities for the trust after the spill was to put in place an environmental and cultural monitoring plan about the state of the lake and river.
Hundreds of thousands of litres of wastewater has flowed into the lake.
"Over these past six weeks, we have worked alongside our marae representatives to oversee the infrastructure remediation work," trust board chief executive Topia Rameka said today in a statement. "We have also been busy implementing our monitoring plan which pulls together cultural data, water sampling, sediment sampling from the shore and lakebed, and mahinga kai sampling."
After analysing the data, the trust board said that Tapuaeharuru Bay has returned to normal.
However, restrictions over the construction site "remains in place until the final remediation work has been completed", Mr Rameka said.
The board is now investigating how the incident occurred.
"This was a significant event for our community and it's important that we take the time to understand what took place in the lead up and take every measure to ensure it does not happen again."
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