14 October 2011

Rotorua District Council support for maritime emergency

Rotorua District Council has offered support to authorities in Tauranga currently dealing with the Rena emergency and beach clean-up.

RDC chief executive Peter Guerin said the council already had two technical staff deployed to Tauranga where they are assisting the logistics team at the Incident Control Centre.

He said Rotorua’s Emergency Response Team had also been mobilised and was on standby ready for possible deployment this weekend to assist with beach clean-up work.

Rotorua District Council is also helping to process sea water taken from Tauranga where there are no treatment facilities currently available.

The council had agreed to take sea water into Rotorua’s sewer system once the oil had been separated out and removed.

“Our agreement with Tauranga authorities is to provide a slow feed through our waste water treatment plant, with an estimated discharge of approximately 30 cubic metres a day. Our system has the capacity to handle that volume without any problems.”

Mr Guerin said the council would do its best to accommodate any official requests it received for resource assistance in Tauranga.

“We’ll do anything we can to assist our coastal Bay of Plenty colleagues, where we can safely balance requests with our existing obligations for providing council services and operating infrastructure here in Rotorua.

“We have designated our Human Resources department as RDC’s central point of contact for any official requests from Tauranga authorities for RDC assistance with the emergency and clean-up effort.”

ENDS

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