Plans for Whaingaroa’s land-based wastewater disposal system were unveiled at a public meeting at the Raglan Club last night by Waikato District Council and Watercare. Engineers say wastewater will go into a gully on Wainui Reserve where it will be absorbed into the ground and that they estimate the construction cost will be 8 million dollars. This is a lot less than the 38 million dollar option previously on the table - which involved piping wastewater 7km up to Maungatawhiri Rd.
The Q&A session with the 50 community members took longer than the presentation itself as the experts were quizzed for over an hour. Some were disbelieving of the statements by the engineers but most came away satisfied that it was a viable option.
The gully in question is open to the sea and there were also concerns that the treated wastewater might flow overland directly onto the beach. Engineers said they were currently doing tests on the soil which would answer that question and that it would be the deciding factor on whether the site would be used.
They did say the current pipe which sends treated wastewater into the ocean would be retained for extreme rain events when the sewerage system becomes overwhelmed.
The presentation also showed how the new wastewater plant, currently under construction, will produce wastewater that is as clear as tap water and nearly at a drinkable standard - and most importantly that it would be odourless.
The only question remaining is whether the rest of the district and its 13 councillors would be happy to pay for this and according to the 3 councillors present this seemed very likely.
Waikato Regional Council’s five-month summer coastal water monitoring programme is now underway.
The samples are lab tested to determine whether the water bacteria levels are safe for beachgoers to swim or surf. The council shares this data publicly via Land Air Water Aotearoa aka LAWA and directly to Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora who decide when to issue public health warnings.
Across the regions beaches last year they didn’t record any results indicating the water was unsuitable for swimming, but there were two ‘caution advised’ results after some heavy rainfall.
The region’s estuarine swimming spots weren’t so good though with seven incidences of sites being unsuitable for swimming and seven occurrences of caution being advised.
https://www.lawa.org.nz/explore-data/