SH23 Closure and Wastewater Update from Council

SH23 is going to be closed overnight for several nights between Sunday 25 February to Friday 1 March, and Sunday 3 March to Friday 8 March. 

This is part of the roadworks project happening at the intersection with Maungatawhiri Road which will be moving to a different phase where they remove old layers of the road. While the closure will run from  9pm to 5am each night vehicles will be able to be escorted through the worksite at 9.45pm, 11pm, 1am and 3am if people are prepared to wait. 

The press release from Waka Kotahi says they are looking to “make the road smoother than the left-hander at Manu Bay” and that after doing lots of patching at the intersection for the last few years a complete rebuild of the road is now required.

Closure dates and times   

* Vehicles will be allowed through the worksite at 9.45pm, 11pm, 1am and 3am.

There is currently more froth on the Raglan Noticeboard about wastewater problems - where a release close to the turn of the tide has caused  some discussion, plus complaints to the council.  The Council says they have checked their systems and that the release of wastewater was done at the correct time. They did point out that they’re allowed to release treated wastewater on the “slack tide”, which is a period half an hour before the change of tide when the water is barely moving. This does mean the wastewater builds up in the same spot for a while and is very visible from the shore.

It has been reported that Waikato District Council will not be fined for the breaches of consent last year when treated wastewater was released several times on the incoming tide. Waikato Regional Council has traditionally been reluctant to fine the district council because it’s local ratepayers who ultimately end up footing the bill but it should be noted that Watercare, who now run the service in this district, are actually owned by Auckland’s Council so it wouldn’t be local ratepayers who would suffer.

Not included in the investigation was the accidental release of partially treated wastewater in December last year - presumably because it occurred after the investigation started. The district council  has released its own report stating that the problem was caused by UV lamps blowing out. This could have led to an overflow of the ponds so a staff member made the decision to release the wastewater without doing the UV treatment. We don’t know what the Regional Council has to say about this but Watercare says they are making some tweaks to their systems to lessen the chance of the problem occurring again.

Still on the wastewater news; Watercare says they’re investigating land based disposal on Wainui reserve while they have also confirmed a Memorandum of Understanding to use private land at Maungatawhiri Road has been signed.  

Meantime a contract has been awarded to Apex Water to construct an MBR plant at the local sewerage works. Our understanding is that this is a fancy new machine that will make the wastewater clean enough to wash your hands in, although no one is especially keen to try.

In local sport Alani Morse and Maja Mateja pushed hard in the grom competition in Whangamata last weekend but only made it to third and second respectively as Lola Groube controlled the Under 16 Girls Final from start to finish.   Copal Mateja also made it to the quarterfinals of the U16 boys as did Meila Clarke in the U18 girls.

The final competition of the series will be held next weekend on 24th and 25 of February at Piha.