Wastewater plant construction delayed

Published on 25 February 2015

25 February 2015

The Wanganui District Council today decided to delay the construction of the new wastewater treatment plant to enable the work necessary to ensure it is affordable for current and future ratepayers and our commercial and industrial users.

Mayor Annette Main said the Council is committed to building a wastewater treatment plant that is affordable and addresses environmental considerations.

“Back in December we delayed construction because of concerns about how affordable the plant’s operating costs would be for our community. The key concern is about how we deal with the sludge produced in the plant because the decisions we make around that will affect operating costs.

“Since December we have been doing further financial modelling and working on a sludge management strategy. This week the Council received an update on that work and confirmed that further assessment of sludge management options is required before we make a final decision. We expect that more information will be available for us to make a decision in June.

“Sludge is a by-product of all waste treatment systems and, because of our unique loads and flows, we require a solution which is unique to us but one that is also cost effective. We also need to consider that technology is evolving and that we need to balance costs and environmental considerations to make the right decision for our community’s long-term future.”

The Council is continuing to work with the Wastewater Advisory Group which includes representatives of the current trade waste producers, councillors and the business community. The group’s key focus is on future charging for trade waste.

In the meantime, the Council will be consulting from March 2 on a new Trade Waste Bylaw which is essentially a “rollover” of the existing bylaw which expires in July 2015. The bylaw may need to be reviewed when the new wastewater treatment plant project is finalised.

The Council also needs to obtain a short-term resource consent from Horizons Regional Council to continue discharging waste to sea until the new treatment plant is built.

“I want to assure our community that the decision to delay is because we want to ensure that we have the right level of information to give the go-ahead for construction,” Mayor Main said.

“These decisions will have a long-term impact on our community. There are no shortcuts in this process so it’s important to take the time to get it right once and for all.”