The latest thinking on wastewater disposal was expounded at an international conference held in Palmerston North in April.

“The once-favoured option of lower treatment standard and disposal to land is not as easy as it seems” is how the Manawatua Standard summarises the conference. Instead the focus seems to be on very high treatment standards and then water reuse or disposal to waterways – all very much in line with the Friends submission for the Akaroa Wastewater solution.

An excellent presentation from Rotorua Lakes Council Wastewater Treatment specialist Alision Lowe summarises the situation in New Zealand, presents the long term problems experienced with the Rotorua land based disposal system and their proposed way forward, including an earth contact bed systems to address cultural concerns before returning the highly treated water to Lake Rotorua.

The conference page is here to read and download all the presentations or watch them on YouTube. For a quick link to Alison’s YouTube presentation (Alison's presentation starts about 10 seconds in), click here.