Soft water is "the most disastrous project" the Wanganui District Council has entered into in the past decade.
That damning assessment came from Councillor Rob Vinsen at a recent infrastructure and property committee meeting, where councillors were making decisions on the future of the soft water project.
The recommendations before the committee, which were passed unanimously, were that the council's water softening plant be operated at its current capacity of 30 litres per second and that options for increasing Wanganui's water softness be included in the 2013-14 annual plan discussions. Mr Vinsen said Wanganui's search for soft water was a failure.
"We've spent $4.9 million and have not got what we were promised. We were promised water that was below 100 [parts per million], and even after what we've spent, most of the city is still at 150ppm." Water with a hardness of 100ppm or less is considered soft water. The committee was shown comparison maps of the city and the amount of softness in the water by suburb, over a period of years.
In 2009, most of the city's water was still hard, at 180ppm. By July this year that had reduced to 150ppm, and could reduce to 125ppm if the output from the water softening plant was increased from 30 to 50 litres per second. This would cost an extra $155,000 plus operating costs.
Mr Vinsen said he agreed with the recommendation to retain the softening plant at 30 litres per second. "We were told this plant would cost $400,000 but it has cost $1.2 million. The Abelard bore cost $2.2 million and it has been shut down. Now, after spending a total of $4.9 million, we get a bit more water that still isn't soft, and if we want water that's under 100ppm we're told we need to spend more money."
Councillor Philippa Baker-Hogan said she had initially supported the soft water project but was disappointed with the results. "This has been a failure. We spent $2.2 million on the Abelard bore and that's just been money poured down a drain."
Councillor Ray Stevens said arguing over the rights and wrongs of the water softening project was irrelevant.
"The money has been budgeted and spent," he said.
Mayor Annette Main asked infrastructure manager Mark Hughes and council senior water engineer Srian Fonseka whether they believed the council had "entered into this with the best available knowledge and due diligence".
"I'm concerned because the bore at Lenihan St is unusable, at a cost of $1 million, and Abelard has had to be closed because of fine sand getting into it. Why didn't our tests show this?"
Mr Hughes said a test bore had exposed the problems with the Lenihan St bore and Mr Fonseka said the Abelard bore ran for 16 months without issue.
"The sand became finer and finer over time and we could not filter it out," he said.
Ms Main told the Wanganui Chronicle: "We do need to ensure that when decisions are required around security of water supply into the future, and our ability to deliver on the promised soft water to as many properties as possible, we do that with full and correct information."