Waste Water

Sewer Connection/Disconnection Application Form

Tokomaru

The operational parameters of the scheme are:

• Population served 600(approx.)
• Connections 139  

The Tokomaru wastewater scheme was installed in 1975 & 1976. It consists primarily of 150mm dia. AC pipe with minor extensions carried out in 1981 and 1982. The system was installed to service the township as ground conditions were not suitable for private septic tanks that had been in use up until then. The system operates by gravity throughout.

Wastewater is treated by a single cell oxidation pond with mechanical aeration discharging into a constructed wetland installed in 2002. The residual effluent (after evaporation and infiltration) discharges into the Makerua Drainage Board No. 2 drain, which leads towards the Linton Main Drain.

The discharge is authorised by permits 101227 and 101228 which expire in 2017.

The key issue relating to the scheme is that a reduction in the infiltration rate is desirable.

The operational parameters of the scheme are:

The Shannon wastewater scheme was installed between 1969 & 1971 to replace the septic tank system, and Mangaore Village in 1975 for the same reason. Both consist primarily of 150mm dia. pipe with some larger pipes up to 300mm. Shannon was mainly AC (asbestos cement) while Mangaore is GEW (glazed earthenware). Sewage from Mangaore Village was connected into the Shannon reticulation in 1990 from a pump-station located at the site of the abandoned Imhoff tank. This transfers the raw sewage some 3.5km along a 50 dia. rising main into Shannon. The records for the reticulation being of relatively recent construction are quite comprehensive and accurate.

The discharge consent has expired and an application has been made for renewal. Although the renewed consent has not yet been issued, draft conditions have been provided and council is working to those conditions. Essentially there needs to be an upgrade of the system and a working party of local people has been reviewing the system and looking at options since 2003. The working party is to report in 2005.

The key issues relating to the scheme are:

• The likely need to upgrade the treatment capacity so that the effluent complies with relevant water quality standards. The Council has expressed a preference for land disposal of the effluent.
• The reticulation being all of the same age is likely to require replacement over a short time frame late in, and beyond, the planning period.
• There is an infiltration problem which needs addressing.
• Affordability for the small number of ratepayers contributing towards this scheme.

Click here to view the latest document on the Shannon Waste Water Treatment Plant.

Foxton

The operational parameters of the scheme are:

• Population served 2,756 (1996 census)
• Connections 1,096

The Foxton wastewater scheme installation was started before 1924. It consists primarily of 150mm dia. GEW and steel pipe with some larger pipes up to 375mm GEW.

A pump-station in Harbour Street lifts the sewage into the delivery line leading towards the oxidation pond on Matakarapa Island. The pump-station and oxidation ponds were installed circa 1970 and these replaced the previous septic tank based treatment system. The pump station was renewed in 2003.

The Wastewater is currently treated by way of a single cell aerobic oxidation pond followed by two maturation ponds in series discharging into a drain leading towards the Foxton loop in the Manawatu River.

The discharge is made under Consent No. 3926 which expires on 31 May 2007.

The key issues relating to the scheme are:

• The development of a land based disposal system should be progressed rapidly.
• The replacement programme for the older pipes needs to continue (but at a lower rate of progress).
• Access to the treatment ponds is difficult.

Foxton Beach

The operational parameters of the scheme are:

• Population served 1,889 (1996 census)
• Connections 1,160
• Average discharge 390 m3/ day (estimated)

The Foxton Beach wastewater scheme was installed in 1980. The township is on flat country and a number of pump-stations transfer the sewage between catchments towards the treatment facility. Treatment consists of a single cell oxidation pond with mechanical aeration and disposal of the effluent by ground soakage through effluent disposal beds set up in a border dike arrangement. This system will be extended in 2004.

The discharge is made under Water Right No. 102249 which expires in 2028.

The key issues relating to the scheme are:

Waitarere Beach

The operational parameters of the scheme are:

• Population served 636(permanent, 1996 census)
• Connections 669

The Waitarere wastewater scheme was installed in 1985 & 1986. It consists primarily of 110 and 160mm dia. uPVC pipe. The system was installed because groundwater is the main source of drinking water at Waitarere (where there is no public reticulated water supply) and it was being contaminated by sewage effluent from septic tanks. The records for the reticulation being of recent construction are quite comprehensive and accurate.

The discharge is permitted by Water Right No. 102220 which expires on 27 June 2007. The conditions in this water right specify a maximum daily flow of 715 m3/day.

The key issues relating to the scheme are:

• The single-pump stations should be upgraded to provide backup capability.
• The environment is corrosive from salt in the air and there is higher than normal abrasion of pumps and sewerage from the amount of sand that enters the system.
• Seasonal variations in population numbers result in significant loading variations. To date this has not proved to be a problem

Levin

The operation parameters of the scheme are:

• Population served 15,400
• Connections 6,431

The system was installed in the mid 50s. It consists primarily of glazed earthenware (GEW) gravity network leading towards a treatment Plant at the Western end of Makomako Road beside Lake Horowhenua. Seven pump stations serve low lying parts of the town.

The Wastewater is fully treated with inlet screens and grit trap, primary clarification, sludge digesters, trickling filters and a solids contact and reaeration tank followed by a secondary clarifier and aerated ponds.

The treated effluent is pumped through a 7 km long pipeline to the Effluent Disposal site commonly known as "the Pot". The effluent is contained in a basin formed amongst the sand hills and is pumped out and spray irrigated onto the surrounding land.

Consent Requirements
Resource consents are held for discharges at the Levin Wastewater Treatment Plant and Effluent disposal site respectively. These cover discharges to air, discharges to groundwater and discharge to land.

The discharge parameters for effluent quality at the Levin Wastewater Treatment Plant, prior to discharge to the Pot are 40/40 g/m3 CBOD5/SS.

The term of these consents is 20 years.

A separate resource consent is held for the discharge to air from the soil filter and the gas flare. This consent expires in May 2005.

The consent for the discharge to groundwater at the treatment plant expires in 2009, and it requires that significant progress is made in reducing this discharge. Council has determined that the sludge drying system (which contaminates groundwater and gives rise to odours) be decommissioned after a dewatering machine has been commissioned. That work is programmed for 2003/2004. The sludge will continue to be spread on land at the Pot, or used as soil conditioner on completed parts of the Levin Landfill.

Current Issues
The transfer system to the pot is limited incapacity to around 16,000 cubic metres per day and the average flow is around 6,000. Very occasionally the amount of water entering the sewers has exceeded this capacity for an extended time, resulting in an overflow into the lake. The most recent such event occurred in 1998. As a result a working party was set up to review the system and it proposed a new sewerage strategy as follows:

• That stormwater connections to the sewer continue to be subject to a regular programme leading to minimising the incidence of inflow.
  That sewer pipes continue to be subject to a regular programme leading to minimising the incidence of infiltration and overflow.
• That Council take no further the idea of lowering the groundwater by draining it through the upper aquiclude.
  
• That Council give urgency to increasing the capacity of the transfer system to the Pot.
  
• That Council secure further land for the disposal field, either at the present location as an extension to it, or at a new location.
  
• That the additional capacity be provided by pumps at an alternative location, which will become the primary transfer system with sufficient capacity to carry four times the dry weather flow, allowing for population growth and laid to the new disposal site.
  
• That the new pump station be located where there is reduced risk of overflow to the Lake: if not possible, then that station shall be designed and managed to minimise the risk.
  
• That the existing pump station continue to be used until such time as the new pump station/transfer system is operational. In the meantime risk management principles should be adopted, in conjunction with Tangata Whenua, to manage the possibility of failure leading to overflows into the Lake, with particular attention to contingency measures to deal with the failure of the rising main, as it approaches the end of its service life.
  
• That Council relocate the treatment plant to a new site in the perpetual ownership of the Council once the location of land for the disposal field is secured.
  
• That Council, when undertaking the planning for the works described above, undertakes full and proper consultation with affected parties.
• That the strategy be completed as soon as practicable, and, because of the long timeframes involved in consultation and planning, work on this should begin immediately.
• This strategy was adopted by Council in October 2002.

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