Current environmental incidents
We respond to a variety of environmental incidents in the region that affect our air, water and land. Here you can find the latest serious environmental incident alerts.
This page covers alerts for unexpected or urgent incidents involving discharges to land, air, and water, where we need the public to avoid a particular area. Here's how you can report an environmental incident.
If you are looking for warnings related to toxic cyanobacteria or faecal contamination at recreational water sites, see our health warnings.
Mass shellfish mortalities
Incident date: Thursday 16 April 2026
Last updated: 2pm, 20 April April 2026
We're continuing to investigate reports of dead shellfish in coastal Waitaha area around Banks Peninsula and Christchurch including Purau, Pines Beach, Brighton and Taylor’s Mistake.
We’ve determined a likely cause for the mussels washed ashore at Purau last week. It’s believed these mussels are connected with stock lost from an aquaculture farm following severe weather in recent weeks. The mussels have already naturally decayed significantly, so it isn’t practical to remove them. They will continue to break down naturally over time.
As we’ve received reports of shellfish deaths from multiple sites, we’ll be leading longer‑term monitoring and analysis to better understand what’s happening in the other areas. Samples have been collected for testing where possible across the reported sites. Full analysis may take several weeks.
Any new information will be shared with our Rūnanga partners, relevant agencies and stakeholders as it becomes available, and we’ll continue to keep the community updated.
Smoke discharge from Burwood Hospital boiler stack
Incident date: Sunday 22 March 2026
Last updated: 5pm, Friday 27 March 2026
We are investigating smoke discharges from the Burwood Hospital boiler stack following multiple reports from nearby residents about visible smoke and a strong burning odour.
We are actively working with Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora as the organisation works to understand and remediate the cause of the smoke as quickly as possible.
If you are affected and haven’t already reported it, please let us know by calling 0800 765 588 (24 hours).
We will continue to update this page as more information becomes available.