Homebush project debt hits $36 million

A aerial photograph of the Homebush Wastewater Treatment Project taken in 2012. PHOTO/PETE NIKOLAISON

Attempts to clear sludge from one of three ponds at the Homebush sewage treatment plant are proving more costly and difficult than expected - and the councillor regarded as the project's watchdog is not happy about it.

David Holmes said, at a meeting last week, the truth is "council hasn't a clue what clearing sludge from pond 3 is going to cost".

His remarks came on the back of a report from finance manager David Paris alerting councillors loan funding needed for the Homebush project this financial year was projected as being close to $2 million, up from the $1.25m that had been allocated.

Project delays from the previous year had resulted in a cost carryover and there had been extra costs relating to sludge and pond 3.

In a submission to the 10 year Long Term Plan, which runs through to 2025, officers had signalled earmarking an extra $500,000 to be spread over three years to "progressively deal" with sludge in the pond.

The impact of the loan changes would mean an extra $60,000 would have to come from sewerage rates next financial year, above what had been budgeted for in the draft plan.

Mr Paris said extra capital and borrowing costs for the scheme will be factored into the year-end position and that interest and loan repayment budgets will be revised for the final Long Term Plan. He confirmed the council's total indebtedness against the Homebush project stands at $36 million.

Mr Holmes said councillors should be looking at where "we can actually save something".

"It may be cheaper in the long run to look at what Carterton has done and to use pond 3 for treated water," he said.

In the past Mr Holmes advocated using centre pivots to distribute wastewater to land, as Carterton now does, and the reference to pond 3 was for it to be used for storing treated wastewater to then used to irrigate farmland.

Responding to Mr Holmes, council chief executive Pim Borren said "no-one could suggest the project hasn't been successful", at least in the time he had been with the council.

The Homebush project is included in the chief executive's contract as a key performance indicator.

Outside the meeting room, Mr Holmes said the council had been warned "right from the start of the consent process" about the problems it would encounter getting rid of sludge from the old ponds.

He said the reality was that work had "overshot the budget by many thousands" and only pond 1 and half of pond 2 had been drained to become part of the border dyke wetland area.

The sludge had to be removed as it contained "plastics, hypodermic needles and other rubbish", he said.