Ashburton ‘Not Moving Fast Enough’ With Water Compliance – Mayor

Monday, 17 February 2025, 10:05 pm
Article: Jonathan Leask - Local Democracy Reporter

Ashburton’s mayor is frustrated at delays in achieving compliance with some of the district’s drinking water supplies.

The council supplies are safe to drink but have several areas to improve to receive compliance from New Zealand's water regulator Taumata Arowai.

“We have some non-compliances, and we are not moving fast enough to remedy them,” Brown said.
“It’s slippage and we must do better.

“The main thing is the water is safe to drink but we just need to get on and get compliance.”

He earlier raised the concerns at the council’s Three Waters Committee meeting last week.

The committee covers the council’s drinking, waste, and storm water operations, not the government’s reforms.

Staff updating the UV filtration upgrades signalled potential delays in sourcing the equipment.

Brown said the “project is now two years late”.

“And we are still getting delays.

“We have put a lot of money into them over the years and we need them done and compliant.”

Assets manager Andy Guthrie said once the UV filtration is installed it will bring the treatment plant compliance up to 95% and the final 5% is “about processes and procedures”.

Infrastructure and open spaces group manager Neil McCann said it requires developing and implementing quality procedures and having the evidence for reporting compliance.

He said the drinking water from the plants is currently safe to drink but the council needs to complete the upgrades to reduce this risk and to achieve the compliance standards set by Taumata Arowai.

UV filtration upgrade is occurring in three packages, with delays in sourcing the UV equipment from overseas likely to impact the timing of larger units required for stages two and three McCann said.

Installation is almost complete at Hinds, with Mayfield to follow, and the Argyle Park should be finished by November.

Dromore is on hold as they sort issues with land access.

Package two includes the Tinwald, Rakaia, and Chertsey plants, with construction of additional space for the UV equipment underway.

The third package is the Ashburton Domain and Bridge Street treatment plants for the Ashburton town supply.

The trickiest scheme for compliance is Montalto, a small rural scheme with 33 connections which is used for both drinking and stockwater.

A potential solution is to have each property fitted with treatment equipment (a ‘point of supply treatment’) if it is deemed an acceptable solution by Taumata Aroawai.

Councils were due to meet with the water regulators on Monday to discuss acceptable solutions for mixed-use rural schemes and any potential changes to make the solutions more practicable and increase adoption McCann said.

Fluoridation not on the radar

The issue of fluoridation was briefly covered at the Three Waters Committee meeting.
There are 14 councils around the country who were set deadlines to implement fluoride treatment in their water supplies after a Ministry of Health directive in 2022.
Ashburton is not one of those councils, but deputy mayor Liz McMillan raised the issue of planning for the possibility it may have to introduce fluoridation under the government’s direction.
Asset manager Andy Guthrie said Ashburton hasn’t been directed to fluoridate yet and “have made no provision for fluoridation in any of the designs” for its treatment plants undergoing upgrades.
There were already issues fitting the UV filtration equipment into some of the treatment plants and “it will be an issue” if the council were directed to fluoridate, he said.
“If it did come, it would probably only be Ashburton and Rakaia [supplies]”.
Methven is the only fluoridated supply in the district, with the equipment included in the $9.6m treatment plant upgrade that opened in October 2023.
The council stopped fluoridation across all its supplies except Methven in 2002.
It was reconsidered in 2007 but not reintroduced.

© Scoop Media

Local Democracy Reporting

Content from the Local Democracy Reporting (LDR) service is published by Scoop as a registered New Zealand Media Outlet LDR Partner.