Pipe replacement given urgency

The Far North District Council is to decide this week whether to replace nearly half of a 7km sewage pipeline which has spilled raw sewage in two failures since February.

Replacement of a 3.2km section of the Bay of Islands pipeline is being recommended as an option by council staff "as a matter of urgency or emergency".

Recent spillages into the Waitangi River and estuary have put shellfish off limits, brought health risk warnings to water users and angered oyster farmers, whose marine farms were closed for a time.

The pipeline recommendation calls for existing asbestos pipe, only half-way through its 50-year life, to be replaced with high-density polythene pipes at an estimated cost of $3.6 million.

Design work on the new pipes could start immediately to allow construction of the new section of pipeline to start soon after July.

Councillors will decide at a meeting in Kaikohe on Thursday whether to go ahead with the project, which would mean bringing forward work already programmed in the district's 10-year sewage treatment plan.

Far North council chief executive Clive Manley said yesterday the section of line recommended for urgent replacement was one the council had major concerns about because it was in the "most sensitive" area and was closest to water.

Eventually, the whole line would have to be replaced, he said, because the asbestos piping had not been as successful as first thought.

Mr Manley and council representatives expect to meet Environment Minister David Benson-Pope in Wellington on Wednesday to update him.

Mr Benson-Pope has asked the Environment Ministry for a report and this is expected early this week.

The council came under heavy criticism last week from Northland public health authorities and oyster farmers, some of whose farms in Waikare Inlet have been closed since 2001.

Northland Federated Farmers, representing oyster farmers who are suing the council for $12 million in a High Court action heard last month, has urged the Government to intervene.

Through the Northland Regional Council, it wants Government money made available under the Health Act to fix the spillage problems.

Medical Officer of Health Dr Jonathan Jarman has also warned of the risk of norovirus spread by human waste. He said some people in the area relied on shellfish for food and if they became sick with norovirus, it could spread.

Although not life-threatening, children, older people and others with weak immune systems were most at risk.

The council expects to spend $42 million on Bay of Islands sewage schemes in the next 10 years and $38 million in the rest of the district.