Company applies to bottle and sell Whanganui bore water

A company wants to use Whanganui's former milk bottling plant in Anzac Pde to bottle bore water for sale. Photo / Bevan Conley

A water bottling company has applied to take 750,000 litres of water a week from a central Whanganui bore.

Aquifer 182 Holding Company Ltd has applied to Horizons Regional Council for consent to take 750 cubic metres of water a week from an existing 237m deep artesian bore at the former milk treatment plant on Anzac Pde.

The consent would last for 27 years.

Online, the company's business is classified as "mineral water manufacturing".

The company started in July 2017. In its application it states the water will be bottled or frozen, for distribution.

Its directors are Declan Rogers and Marshall Tangaroa. Half of its shares are owned by Rogers, who also owns the property, and the other half by Aquifer Trustee Ltd.

Horizons has asked the company for more information, and has not yet decided whether to notify the application, its strategy and regulation manager Nic Peet said.

In January this year Whanganui District Council gave permission for a manufacturing activity at 182 Anzac Pde.

The application was not notified, because the effect on nearby houses and traffic flow was determined to be minimal.

Meanwhile, Whanganui District Council candidate Kiritahi Firmin says she has called a public meeting at 12pm on Tuesday in Majestic Square, to inform people about the application.

"Last week we marched all around the country for climate change and this is right in front of us. It's going to affect our environment, our land."

Whanganui Horizons councillor Nicola Patrick said consent applications were usually assessed purely on the effects they will have.