Sewage risk to new subdivisions

Last week's floods have exposed a massive potential health risk for future Carterton subdivisions, according to a couple whose property has been hit for the second time in two years by overflowing sewage.
Park Road couple Nicky and Blair Ireland said their septic tank overflows during heavy rain and they doubted their road would cope with a huge subdivision planned upstream.
They say the overflow from their septic tank becomes a backflow when floodwaters hit the paddocks behind their section, like last week and in February last year.
A planned subdivision for about 100 houses off Armstrong Ave would also drain through these paddocks, Mrs Ireland said.
"They're going to have mega-problems."
With an overflow pipe underwater, the Irelands' septic tank becomes full of rainwater and unable to take any more sewage.
Mr Ireland pumped the excess storm-water from the septic tank last week, and the couple had to take the lid off to relieve pressure and allow the septic tank to be used at all.
Mrs Ireland said neighbours also suffer the same problem, in an area just past the urban sewerage supply.
The whole area drains to a small waterway called Boot Creek, but paddocks between the houses and the creek become like a lake after heavy rain.
If a large subdivision is added to the equation, Mrs Ireland wonders where all the extra water will go. "We can't take it as it is."
Downhill from the Irelands, houses are even more low-lying and have the same sorts of problems with septic tanks and drainage.
Since the flood of February last year, Carterton District Council has deepened a drain at the front of these Park Road properties. Without that work, Mrs Ireland believes the water "really would have come straight through our house".
But Mrs Ireland suspects the drain improvement created problems downstream, as a neighbour's bridge across Boot Creek was overwhelmed and his section flooded.