By BRIAN RUDMAN
When the Mangere sewerage plant opened many years ago, Auckland Mayor Sir Dove Myer-Robinson drank a glass of the treated water to show how pristine the outflow into the Manukau Harbour would be.
As a beverage it didn't catch on. Who in their right mind would choose to drink treated effluent, however pure, when there was an endless supply of A-grade water flowing from their taps?
Robbie's stunt came to mind yesterday when a Three Kings resident rang to say that Auckland City bureaucrats were continuing a five-year campaign to force him and 40,000 of his neighbours, to drink, as it were, from Robbie's cup.
The city officials want to switch off water from the protected Waitakere dams, and feed the residents lower-grade bore water from beneath the quarry and the three rubbish dumps of the Three Kings hills.
In a report to tomorrow night's council meeting, Michael McQuillan, the manager of utility planning, recommends the council agree "it is satisfied with the water quality" and "that the water is safe to drink."
This is a view which two of the consultants to the council-owned water company Metrowater, Professor Tord Kjellstrom and Dr Carol Boyle, continue to question.
In a late plea to the council they "highlight the fact that the information available is insufficient to draw the conclusion that this water source is safe for human consumption in the long term."
Putting aside the health considerations for a moment, it is something of a scandal that the council even bothers to waste any more ratepayer money on reports and tests and hearings into the Three Kings water source.
With the water supply dams more than 70 per cent full and the Waikato pipeline to come on stream by March 2002, the Three Kings source, whatever its quality, is not needed. Nor will it be, except in the highly unlikely case that this winter we experience a once-in-200-year drought like the 1994 one.
It was in the aftermath of 1994 that the city went in search of additional water sources. Mt Wellington, Western Springs and Three Kings were singled out. Three Kings proved the most promising.
It fitted in with the plans of the scoria mining company Winstone Aggregates, which wanted to lower the water table in its Three Kings quarry so it could mine deeper.
As for Auckland City, it saw the Three Kings source as the chance to break Watercare's regional water monopoly with a competing water company of its own.
However, the circumstances that gave birth - and some sense - to the Three Kings water project, soon changed. Auckland City became part-owner of Watercare. And the region, instead of looking for bitsy solutions to future water supply needs, voted to plug into the mighty Waikato instead.
Despite these changes, those pushing the now-pointless Three Kings project soldiered on.
Meanwhile, anti-mining protesters, horrified at the thought of the scoria quarries being extended, were joined by other locals appalled at the thought of being forced to drink the water.
The council report says the water meets present drinking standards and "based on current knowledge (including toxicological information) the water is considered to constitute no significant risk to health over a lifetime of consumption."
Professor Kjellstrom and Dr Boyle are not so sure. They point to very high nitrate levels in samples and worry about the health consequences for the vulnerable, such as infants. Another concern is where the nitrate comes from. One suspicion is that it comes from fractured sewerage pipes. If this is the case, there are concerns that the supply could become vulnerable to disease.
What all the experts do agree on is that the bore water will be of a lower quality than that enjoyed by those living around Three Kings.
Given there is no foreseeable shortage of supplies, what possible justification can there be for cutting 40,000 Aucklanders off this supply line and forcing them to drink something of inferior quality?
<i>Rudman's city </i>- Three Kings plan has bitter taste
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