Council's latest cost cutting proposals to wastewater scheme

The Council wastewater staff have proposed several new cost cutting measures for the Akaroa wastewater scheme.

Their recommendation now being the following:

·        Irrigating all Duvauchelle wastewater in Robinsons Bay instead of the areas around the golf course

·        Reducing size of irrigation fields by around 30% from 41 to 28 hectares, now in Robinsons Bay and Hammond Point only.

·        Doubling the irrigation rates to up to 6.2mm/day

·        Reducing the volume of storage of treated wastewater from 24,000m³ to 16,000m³

·        Discharging treated wastewater overflows with a very short pipe 300m out into Childrens Bay near the boat ramp

·        Moving the wastewater treatment plant to a site with lower geotechnical costs on the other side of Old Coach Rd (the flat hay paddock at the top of the hill)

·        Reducing the wetland size from approximately 3,200m2 to 1,000m2

·        Making any other reasonably practicable changes to reduce both costs and adverse effects. These might include: marine rather than road pipes from Duvauchelle to the WWTP; and refining the design of the Robinsons Bay irrigation site and storage volumes.

Note: some of the possible design changes included irrigating the heritage site, making the main site access via the Sawmill Road entrance i.e through the heritage area, and restricting or removing public access from the sites i.e no recreational opportunities.

This is a very significant level of change with increased environmental risk. The negatives include the huge hike in irrigation rates, leading us to question that if these rates are in fact safe, why did the Council not apply them earlier to avoid expensive land purchases. Land saturation will occur quickly with these rates and that combined with a smaller storage capacity will either result in runoff into the Robinsons Bay stream and potential pollution of shallow Robinsons Bay or result in far more

overflows and similar problems in shallow Childrens Bay. 

The next step is the staffs’ new proposals going to the Finance and Performance committee meeting on Wednesday 22 April at 9:30am. We are extremely concerned that such major changes are being made so quickly with no opportunity for community input. Friends of Banks Peninsula have managed to secure a speaking slot to present a 10 minute deputation at this meeting. This may be the only chance for input as the Council will be withdrawing the current application and then applying under the new government standards which we think will preclude any public input.

Click HERE to read our presentation which has been shared with and endorsed by the Akaroa Civic Trust, Akaroa Ratepayers and Residents Association and the Robinsons Bay Ratepayers and Residents Association.