$9m blowout hits sewerage plan

The new Omokoroa sewerage scheme is now likely to cost $28 million - a 40 per cent blowout that has sparked fears of a horrific rates hike.
The cost of sending Omokoroa's sewage along a 14.5km pipeline to the Tauranga Chapel St treatment plant was originally estimated at $19 million.
The new figure was revealed in the Western Bay District Council's 2005-06 draft annual plan, which was approved yesterday.
It said the cost included expected contract rates and that staff were trying to find savings.
This came with news that Omokoroa ratepayers would be hit by a 34 per cent rise in the next financial year with the introduction of a $340 sewerage charge.
Jim Higgins, a former Omokoroa Community Board chairman and association member, said he wasn't surprised at the increase in the project cost and the effect on rates was going to be horrific.
The wastewater scheme, expected to be completed by the end of 2007, has had a rocky history.
A group of residents, who formed the now-disbanded Omokoroa Ratepayers Association, opposed the scheme and pushed for an on-site effluent disposal system they believed would cost only $10 million.
In November 2003, the association launched an appeal against the project's resource consent, but it was thrown out by the Environment Court in June last year.
Mr Higgins said there had been a concerted campaign blaming the association for the increased costs.
"The association had long since gone and we are still being abused," said Mr Higgins, a former mayor of Tokoroa.
"The blowout shows we were right. We came up with alternatives and I just wish they (the council) had the courtesy to listen to us."
He said piping raw sewage 14.5 kilometres for 2000 people was going "to be fairly chaotic and not very savoury." He said a second smaller pipeline might also have to be laid.
The political decision, the engineering and physics were wrong in every way and "we had the cheek to query it."
After yesterday's meeting, chief financial officer Philip Jones said the price of pipes and construction costs had increased 30 per cent.
The council was building a pipeline for 10,000 people and the current population was 2000.
Mr Jones said one consideration was ensuring existing residents don't pay for the future capacity. A pump station, for instance, could be designed so it was not immediately operating for 10,000 people, he said.
The council pledged to look at ways of reducing the cost of the pipeline. The councillors were told a full report on the pipeline would be presented on April 21.
The council planned to lay a 300mm wide pipeline 3m to 4m below the seabed that would would link with the booster pump station at Bethlehem.
There would be nine local pump stations along the way and the Omokoroa wastewater would first be directed to the main pump station on the council's Turnbull property behind the Settlers Hall.
Once the new sewerage scheme was operating, Omokoroa ratepayers were expected to pay a uniform annual charge of around $500 after it was reduced from $750 when the Government said it would provide a subsidy of around $6 million.
The final pipeline design is expected to be finished by July.