Wastewater land discharge an option for Waipawa

Walker Rd is being investigated as the site of a land discharge scheme for Waipawa's wastewater.

Work is under way on groundwater monitoring bores on Walker Rd, Waipawa.

The monitoring bores have been installed as Central Hawke's Bay District Council investigates options for a land discharge scheme for the region's wastewater.

"The Walker Rd site is an option as a potential land discharge site," said CHBDC chief executive Monique Davidson.

The bores will provide information on the feasibility of the proposed site, which would be irrigated with treated wastewater from the Waipawa treatment plant, which will eventually include Otane's wastewater.

Currently, Otane's treated wastewater discharges through a farm drain to the Papanui stream, but last week work began on a new wastewater pipeline between Otane and Waipawa.

The work is stage one of a $1.15 million project to have a 3.5km section of new wastewater pipeline installed between the two towns, which will eventually transfer Otane's wastewater to Waipawa for treatment and discharge.

"This a first step to removing direct discharge of wastewater from Central Hawke's Bay's waterways," said Davidson.

The work is the result of a change to the use of project funding, adopted by council late last year as an alternative to the planned upgrade of the existing Otane wastewater treatment plant.

"The Otane to Waipawa Wastewater Pipeline project will achieve better long-term outcomes improving the treatment of Otane's wastewater, by piping to a collective treatment site in Waipawa, rather than an isolated plant in Otane," Davidson said.

"Council is thinking long-term with this project, not only financially, but environmentally too," Central Hawke's Bay Mayor Alex Walker said.

"We know how important it is to the community that the disposal of our wastewater stays out of our rivers. We hear you, and this is part of our vision for the future too.

"Stage one of the Otane to Waipawa Wastewater Pipeline represents our commitment to this. When a tender price in excess of $1m was presented to us for the upgrade of the Otane wastewater treatment plant, and it was clear that it still wouldn't be able to meet our consent or environmental expectations consistently, we knew we needed to change direction."

Work on stage one of the wastewater pipeline is expected to be completed by October 2020.

The council's 2021-2031 Long Term Plan will consider wastewater projects including the next stages of the Otane to Waipawa Wastewater Pipeline, with community engagement invited later this year.