Sewerage scheme costs soar

A population explosion at Whangarei Heads has forced a $9 million increase to a planned sewerage scheme.
Whangarei District Council had planned to spend about $7.5 million by mid 2007 on a scheme which would have pumped sewage from McLeod, Reotahi, Little Munro, McGregor, Taurikura, McKenzie and Urquhart bays to a treatment plant that would have been built at Ocean Beach.
It was to extend a scheme which the council has already spent about $5.5 million on.
But yesterday councillors were told that as a result of high growth expected in the area - identified in the council's coastal structure plans - a totally different scheme, estimated to cost $16.5 million, was now needed.
The council's latest plan is to pump sewage from the Whangarei Heads to the district's main treatment plant at Kioreroa Rd. No treatment plant would be built at Ocean Beach, but a storage facility at Parua Bay would be included in the project.
The council's waste and drainage manager, Gary Oldcorn, told councillors, in a written report that the area's sewerage would have to cater for an estimated 5980 people, not the 2900 people for which the original scheme was designed.
Mr Oldcorn's written report said some existing infrastructure would also have to be upgraded to cater for additional flows.
Detailed designs, costings and funding scenarios are yet to be finalised.
The matter will be open to public consultation as part of this year's annual planning process.