The Bream Bay pipeline would start from the new wastewater treatment plant, stretching 3km out to sea. It would discharge into about 8m of water.<\/p>\n
It would be Northland\u2019s first large council offshore outfall for treated municipal wastewater.<\/p>\n
In comparison, Whang\u0101rei\u2019s Kioreroa Rd plant discharges 12m litres or the equivalent of 4.8 Olympic swimming pools of treated wastewater a day, but into Whang\u0101rei Harbour, an estuary. It services 68,500 people.<\/p>\n
Charles led a Ruak\u0101k\u0101 wastewater management update at a Whang\u0101rei District Council briefing on May 12.<\/p>\n
Updates on Ruak\u0101k\u0101’s new wastewater treatment plant plans featured at a WDC briefing meeting at Te Iwitahi in Whang\u0101rei. Photo \/ Susan Botting<\/p>\n
He said the council needed an urgent solution because Ruak\u0101k\u0101\u2019s 1980s wastewater treatment plant was nearing capacity and constraining development.<\/p>\n
The 2022 closure of the Marsden Point oil refinery added pressure.<\/p>\n
Industrial volumes of the Ruak\u0101k\u0101 plant\u2019s treated wastewater had previously been used by the refinery but now needed another destination.<\/p>\n
In the meeting agenda paper Charles acknowledged that discharging into the sea was not preferred by some in the community, including tangata whenua, because of cultural concerns such as potential impacts on kaimoana gathering areas.<\/p>\n
Others with potential concerns when consent was granted included shellfish business operators and Niwa, which today runs land-based Northland aquaculture centre kingfish farm at Ruak\u0101k\u0101 and is consented to take about one Olympic swimming pool of seawater via its Bream Bay intake pipeline every 10 minutes.<\/p>\n
Thousands of people visit Ruak\u0101k\u0101 Beach over summer to swim, surf and relax. Bream Bay is a popular recreational fishing ground.<\/p>\n
Patuharakeke Te Iwi Trust Board Te Pou Taiao unit pou hautu (co-convenor) Juliane Chetham said the board had strongly opposed the ocean outfall\u2019s 2012 consent and had not changed that position.<\/p>\n
The trust board is the Ruak\u0101k\u0101 treatment plant upgrade project\u2019s mana whenua partner. <\/p>\n
It has a Mana Whakahono a Rohe agreement with the council formalising how the two collaborate on Resource Management Act planning and decision making. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have always been opposed to the ocean outfall – which is significant in size – and haven\u2019t changed our position,\u201d Chetham said.<\/p>\n
The project upgrade steering group member said the board\u2019s preferred options were land\u2011based discharge or reuse in suitable local industry.<\/p>\n
Chetham said the board wanted any discharge option to include a land contact bed where wastewater went through whenua (land) including rocks and vegetation after it was treated, to restore the mauri (life force) of the water which had been lost during the treatment process before final discharge.<\/p>\n
She said the board acknowledged a new treatment plant was needed.<\/p>\n
But it strongly opposed the likely more expensive ocean outfall as part of that, saying disposing of human waste into the sea or any waterway was anathema to the board and to M\u0101ori \u2014 even if treated.<\/p>\n
Chetham said the board and council were working well together and hoped that would continue when the new inter\u2011council company Northland Waters – Ng\u0101 Wai o Te Tai Tokerau took over WDC\u2019s water assets.<\/p>\n
This is scheduled for July next year.<\/p>\n
The council has budgeted $94.3m for the project.<\/p>\n
Charles\u2019 meeting agenda item said the region\u2019s new Northland Waters CCO \u2013 shaping up to take over councils\u2019 wastewater assets in July next year \u2013 had $87m in its delivery plan to build and commission the new infrastructure.<\/p>\n
WDC acting general manager waters Simon Charles (left) led an update on Ruak\u0101k\u0101’s new wastewater treatment plant plans. Photo \/ Susan Botting<\/p>\n
He said the population of Ruak\u0101k\u0101 and One Tree Point was expected to reach about 100,000 and the Waipu area by about 7000 by 2084.<\/p>\n
Ruak\u0101k\u0101\u2019s wastewater treatment plant is off Marsden Point Rd near Ruak\u0101k\u0101 village. It discharges 1.2 million litres of treated wastewater a day to land and serves 7300 people.<\/p>\n
The new plant will serve Ruak\u0101k\u0101 Beach, Ruak\u0101k\u0101 south, the township, One Tree Point, Takahiwai and Marsden Point, with processing for Waipu, Waipu Cove, Langs Beach and Langs Cove to be added on.<\/p>\n
Work on the pipeline so far includes marine and land investigations, offshore geotechnical studies, oceanographic modelling, land testing, topographical surveys, and assessments of installation methods and design philosophy.<\/p>\n
WDC must prove the ocean pipeline is the best wastewater discharge option before proceeding, under its 2012 Northland Regional Council consent conditions.<\/p>\n
Meeting agenda papers said other options investigated included discharge to Ruak\u0101k\u0101 River via McCathie Rd, council-owned land near Bream Bay College, Whang\u0101rei Harbour through Marsden Point\u2019s Channel Infrastructure stormwater detention pond, land at the new Rama Rd plant site, recycling and reusing or a combination of these.<\/p>\n
The new wastewater treatment plant is illustrated at a WDC briefing meeting at Te Iwitahi in Whang\u0101rei. Photo \/ Susan Botting<\/p>\n
Charles said one option could involve splitting discharge, with part of the treated wastewater sent to land and the rest offshore.<\/p>\n
Projected growth in One Tree Point, Ruak\u0101k\u0101 and Waipu required more than 300ha if treated effluent were discharged solely to land.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Charles said an interim solution for urgently needed extra treated wastewater discharge was developed.<\/p>\n
WDC had applied for a Department of Conservation concession on nearby Poupouwhenua scenic reserve for this purpose. Its lease had been approved, and draft NRC and WDC consent conditions were being negotiated.<\/p>\n
*Auckland Council Watercare\u2019s 2025 Warkworth\u2013Snells Beach wastewater scheme is consented to discharge up to four million litres of treated wastewater into the Hauraki Gulf. It is much closer to land and is an upgrade to an existing rather than a completely new facility.<\/p>\n
\u25a0 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bream Bay pipeline would start from the new wastewater treatment plant, stretching 3km out to sea. It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1561,2756,10001,380,273,1888,130,8599,2686,111,139,24926,69,11599,5493,228590,3525,72851,147,131,23505,78597,2963],"class_list":["post-448604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-bay","tag-bream","tag-closer","tag-decade","tag-environment","tag-first","tag-more","tag-moves","tag-moving","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-northlands","tag-nz","tag-ocean","tag-open","tag-outfall","tag-pipeline","tag-ruakk","tag-science","tag-than","tag-treated","tag-wastewater","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}