Milestones reached for new wastewater treatment plant
Published on 15 December 2016
15 December 2016
At the Whanganui District Council meeting on Tuesday, 13 December 2016, several important milestones were passed on the journey toward building a reliable, sustainable and affordable wastewater treatment plant for the community. The new plant is due to open in early 2018.
“Council unanimously agreed to the biosolids strategy and the statement of facts. This includes the purchase and installation of a $7M dryer as part of the construction of the new wastewater treatment plant. The dryer significantly reduces operating costs and opens up more cost effective and environmentally sustainable options for sludge reuse and disposal,” Whanganui District Mayor Hamish McDouall said today.
“The use of the dryer, which produces ‘A’ grade stabilised dry biosolids devoid of human pathogens, was adopted by Council in July 2015 following detailed consideration of the options for reuse and disposal of the sludge. Disposal of the sludge was a major bugbear with the failed plant. The inclusion of the dryer process eliminates the very real risk that putting non-dried sludge in the settling pond will again produce foul odour, putting us right back where we started.
“The dryer process also removes the unaffordable prospect of reverting to disposing dewatered sludge to Hampton Downs landfill which would increase the residential pan tax by $60 and trade waste rates by $900,000 a year, not counting the costs of varying the construction contract which would have been considerable.
“The dryer option is the only practical, affordable solution,” Mayor McDouall said.
The Council also accepted that any alterations to the design or construction to the new wastewater treatment plant, in expectation of possible lower trade waste loads, will not result in a net saving.
“The Council also approved that work proceeds on the scheduled development of the charging model for the fair allocation of the costs between trade waste and municipal users of the new plant,” Mayor McDouall said.
“This planned work is based on a marginal cost allocation which means costs over and above those that Council would need to bear for a municipal only plant are appointed to trade waste users. This is known as the incremental cost model and takes into account any waste over and above what they are consented to discharge. This model is much fairer on municipal users.
“The Local Government Act requires the Council to provide good quality local infrastructure appropriate to meet present and anticipated future circumstances. All along, the Council has been engaged in a balancing act to ensure the new plant is both cost effective for households and businesses while meeting the current and future needs of the community.
“It is pleasing to see that the newly sworn-in Council has taken cognisance of the facts on the table. There has been a significant amount of time spent by both Councillors and staff to reach this point, as well as considerable analysis of facts and modelling, but the end point is the new wastewater plant construction will continue as approved in March this year,” Mayor McDouall said.
“Now the Council can get on with other vital matters, such as growing our economy.”
Mayor McDouall thanked the Wastewater Advisory Group which was established in late 2014 and includes representatives of current trade waste businesses, septic tanker operators, a representative from Business Whanganui, Elected Members and staff for their ongoing advice and input to the decision-making process for the new plant.