After $17m and counting, Sweetwaters to finally flow into Kaitāia homes

Far North District councillor Mate Radich says something doesn't smell right about the length of time and cost it’s taken to finish the Sweetwaters Aquifer project, and he’s sceptical the water will finally be delivered next week, as promised. Photo / Mike Dinsdale

It will hopefully be third time lucky for Far North District Council in getting water from the controversial $17 million Sweetwater Aquifer into Kaitāia homes.

The council hopes that water from the aquifer will finally be at the Kaitāia Water Treatment Plant by February 3, with the water expected in households and businesses within a couple of weeks after that.

The running total for the project as of last December was $17 million and rising.

But one councillor, Te Hiku Ward’s Mate Radich, doubts the latest proposed coming of the sweet water to alleviate the town’s water woes will be delivered on time. Radich has previously called the entire project a debacle that has taken far too long – and cost far too much.

Far North District Council (FNDC) started the Sweetwaters project in 2011, with the scheme gathering pace following the 2020 drought that hit Northland. It was designed to provide clean drinking water for Kaitāia and surrounds and do away with the need to take water from the vulnerable Awanui River.

The project was supposed to ease the situation, which has seen water storage tanks installed in Kaitāia during droughts, when the Awanui River runs low.

But it has been dogged with problems ever since and the project has now soaked up $17m of ratepayer money, with the final cost likely to top $20m.

The council first promised that the water would be flowing through taps in the town in December 2023, but issues prevented that from happening. It then said the water would be ready by the end of December last year, but again that deadline was missed.

One issue was that the council had to get a membrane filter from overseas to install at the Kaitāia Water Treatment Plant to allow the council to treat both the Sweetwater bore and Awanui River sources.

Compounding the delays was the fact that the country’s top environmental body put an abatement notice on it for unauthorised discharges into a wetland.

The Environmental Protection Authority had ordered a stop to discharges from Kaitāia’s Sweetwaters Aquifer project due to unauthorised discharges into a wetland. Far North District Council hopes to finally have water from the aquifer into homes soon. Photo / Mike Dinsdale

The Government’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) said on May 10 it issued an abatement notice to FNDC in relation to the unauthorised discharge of water from the Sweetwater bores.

“The abatement notice required the council to immediately stop discharging water from the bores to the surrounding wetland. This abatement notice remains in place,” the EPA said.

“As New Zealand’s national environmental regulator, the EPA undertook the investigation following a request from the Northland Regional Council. Under the RMA [Resource Management Act], the EPA has specific enforcement powers to assist and intervene in an enforcement action of a council.”

EPA investigations manager Jackie Adams said the abatement notice is still in place and will remain so until the council acquires appropriate discharge consent from the Northland Regional Council.

The EPA would not comment further at this stage.

FNDC head of infrastructure Tanya Proctor said a membrane filter arrived on-site at the Kaitāia Water Treatment plant last Tuesday and was installed the following day, with the installation delayed by 24 hours due to the severe weather conditions in the area.

“The mobile membrane, which treats bore water, had been in transit from Australia since before Christmas,” Proctor said.

‘‘Some civil and electrical works will be carried out ... to connect the mains power supply and generator. These can only be undertaken with the membrane filter in place. Once these works are completed, which are scheduled to take up to two weeks, the next stage will be for water from Sweetwater to be introduced to ... Kaitāia’s water supply.’’

Kaitāia’s Sweetwaters Aquifer project has been beset by problems since it was first started in 2011, but more than $17 million later, FNDC hopes water will start coming form the aquifer and into homes soon. Photo / Mike Dinsdale

She said most of the preparation work for the job was completed ahead of the membrane unit’s arrival.

Proctor said since the severe drought of 2019-20, the council has been working to build resilience into its eight water supplies.

The immediate priority was the two South Hokianga water supplies – Ōmanaia-Rāwene and Ōpononi-Ōmāpere – which had long been the most vulnerable to dry conditions and for many years had level 2 restrictions automatically imposed in December.

In 2019, the council built a $2.8m water treatment plant and storage tanks near Ōmanaia and in the summer of 2020/2021 commissioned a bore at Smoothy Rd in Ōmāpere to improve resilience of that supply. No water restrictions have been necessary for Ōpononi-Ōmāpere since that bore became the community’s primary water supply.

“We are now focused on providing Kaitaia with a permanent supplementary water supply sourced from aquifers at Sweetwater. This will significantly improve the drought resilience of our second largest town and protect the ecology of the Awanui River,” she said.

However, Radich said it’s good that the council has another date for getting the water into taps, but after promised delivery the previous two Decembers came and passed, he wasn’t holding his breath this time.

“There’s a lot of people down there working on this. It’s been a long time coming, but we’ll just have to wait and see if it does [get delivered next week],” he said.