Drinking water safety

Frimley

Work on the Frimley water treatment and storage facility has started, with site clearing well underway in preparation for the construction of the tank and treatment building foundations.

The facility will sit on just over one hectare of the almost 20-hectare park, with the balance protected by its newly confirmed Recreation Reserve status. That status also applies to the area where the maintenance sheds currently sit. Those sheds will be removed from the park within two years and the area reintegrated into the public part of the park.

The formal process to achieve Reserve status will take about four months, after which work on a Reserve Management Plan will get underway. Full public consultation will help decide how the space vacated by the sheds will be used.

Waiaroha

The Waiaroha water treatment, storage and education facility is going through the Resource Consent process following a four-week public engagement programme held in September.

The public engagement included an open day held on site – on the corner of Southampton St East and Hastings St South – which drew a good crowd looking for more information about the proposal, and providing Council with feedback.

Next steps include putting together an education committee. That will ensure the landscaping and resources will achieve the desired aim of enabling the community, especially school groups, to fully understand the region’s water life cycle, from the hills to the aquifer, through the treatment process, to the tap, and where water goes to once we have finished with it.

Small community supplies

Work to improve the safety, capacity and resilience of the district’s eight small community water supplies continues, with a formal opening of the new Haumoana treatment and storage facility planned for late October.

It is expected that the new water supply will be piped into Haumoana and Te Awanga homes within a couple of weeks of the opening, once all testing has been completed. The supply will also provide water to Parkhill but further connections need to be made over the next couple of months to enable that.

Three further facilities are already underway, in Whirinaki/Esk, Te Pohue and Waimarama, while others are undergoing community engagement and/or the Resource Consent process.

Together the eight supplies serve more than 2100 homes.

29 September 2020

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