Carterton District Council has purchased a 1.2ha lifestyle property near its expanding waste water plant.

Council chief executive Jane Davis said council had this month signed a purchase agreement for the $315,000 Wride property adjacent to the Daleton Farm site on SH2.

"We need it for the future expansion of the waste water treatment plant," Ms Davis said.

"We've been in negotiations to purchase the land, which is needed for when we extend our irrigation area and build some ponds."

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Council had decided to purchase the property, which has a rateable value of $325,000 and is surrounded by the Daleton Farm site, late last year, she said.

The eventual plan was to add more storage ponds, which would allow council to better manage the rate of treated water being discharged, Ms Davis said.

"We are restricted on how much we can discharge on to land because we can't have any run off."

Council is preparing a resource consent application for a long term move to continue to irrigate land at Daleton Farm, which was bought by council in 2012 at a cost of $2.4 million.

The wastewater upgrade project aims to cut the amount of wastewater and nutrients discharged into the Mangaterere Stream during summer, when flows are naturally lower.

Council began discharging treated wastewater on to 19ha of Daleton Farm, adjacent to the wastewater treatment plant, in late December 2014.

The disinfected, recycled water is irrigated at a rate of between 2-8mm per day, depending on conditions, over about 120 days.

Between December and April last year about 150 million litres of treated wastewater were irrigated on to the land, which is leased to a farmer.

A 2.4ha area at the south-eastern corner of the farm is being converted to a wetland.