Council to come clean about Takaka’s new waste-water treatment plans in workshop and open day
Council is making progress on the planned upgrade to the Takaka waste-water treatment station, and is planning to hold a workshop/open day before construction begins.
“We’ve applied for a Resource Consent for the upgrade and we’ve purchased a piece of land,” said TDC utilities asset manager, Jeff Cuthbertson. “At the moment we’re doing geotech work to determine how thick the gravels are. We don’t have a date for the hearing yet.”
Mr Cuthbertson explained that the new land will be used to locate the intake screen, odour control system and a lined aeration lagoon. Effluent will leave the aeration lagoon and enter the existing ponds. A new lined wetland will be constructed on the existing land adjacent to existing ponds. Fully treated effluent will be pumped from the wetland and discharged via rapid infiltration beds to the ground at the new site.
Manawhenua ki Mohua, the local iwi, have been involved in the process from its inception about five years ago, said Mr Cuthbertson, and, while they have been very concerned about protecting the river, they have been “very, very supportive”.
“They have always said that this is not a very good site for sewerage treatment, but there’s never an ideal location for this type of facility. Technology is improving all the time and eventually we’ll have access to technologies that produce only two finished products—sludge and fresh water. Unfortunately these technologies are very expensive and the size of the community doesn’t justify the cost at this stage.”
The upgraded waste water treatment plant will continue to distribute effluent to the land but Mr Cuthbertson said that this will happen “as far away from the river as possible, to protect the river and the receiving environment.”
Meanwhile, the people who submitted in opposition to the proposal say that the treatment station is too close to houses because the piece of land bought by the council is only 300 metres from some houses..
One of them, Cr Noel Riley, exercised his right at as a private citizen to be involved in the submission process.
“I’m opposed for a number of reasons,” he said. “Council said clearly in their application that they hadn’t investigated alternative options because they were too dear. I want to know how they knew they were too dear if they hadn’t investigated them. Also we draw our bore water out of the ground here, about 300 metres from the proposed extension. I want an engineer or other appropriate person to show me some evidence to say that our water’s not going to be contaminated. Finally I want to know for sure that the improved treatment station is not going to have a polluting smell associated with it.”
Neil Wilson
