FNDC awaits Lake Ōmāpere approval

Lake Ōmāpere has yet to be approved as a water source for Kaikohe. Picture / File

The Far North District Council is waiting for the Northland DHB to approve Lake Ōmāpere as a source of water for drought-stricken Kaikohe.

Infrastructure and assets manager Andy Finch said he expected approval to be straightforward, although the size of the file that had been set to the DHB last week had caused a delay.

Medical Officer of Health Dr Jose Ortega Benito said at 3.42pm on Thursday that while he had been kept informed of progress regarding the proposed treatment of water from the lake, no notification for intent to use the lake had been received from the council to be assessed.

Mr Finch said on Tuesday that the file had been dispatched last week, but because of the size of the file it had not got past the DHB's server, and thus had not reached the staff who needed it. It had subsequently been re-sent on Thursday afternoon, and the DHB had confirmed that it had been received.

"It was an IT issue rather than human oversight," Mr Finch said.

The council had, however, expected to gain sign-off from the DHB to allow it to supply Kaikohe with drinking water from Lake Ōmāpere almost a month ago. A council spokesman was quoted on March 13 as saying that the pump and pipeline that had been installed at the lake the week before were operational, and the council had finalised a solution for treating the water, which was susceptible to algal blooms.

"We anticipate gaining sign-off from the DHB... early next week, and are hopeful we can then start using the water," the spokesman said.

(Mayor John Carter said testing of the water had raised a number of issues, one of which was smell.

("It stank. It was off the scale. No one was going to drink it, so we had to install more equipment to deal with that," he said.

("We kept in touch with the DHB throughout that process, and now we've reached the point where we can submit a notification for assessment.")

Dr Benito said on Thursday afternoon that the DHB's Drinking Water Assessment Unit was working with the council on alternative drinking water supplies' capability and capacities during the drought. Alternative water sources such as Lake Ōmāpere were being identified, and, under the Health Act 1956, the council was required to notify the Medical Officer of Health of the sources and quality of raw water from those sources.

While he had been kept informed on progress with the proposed treatment, no notification had been received for assessment.

Meanwhile Mr Finch said the Covid-19 crisis would have an impact on the timeline for the project to draw water from a council bore at Sweetwater to supplement the supply from the Awanui River, which for several months had been running at a level lower than the minimum allowed by the Northland Regional Council's consent for continued extraction.

Last month he said he expected the bore to be supplying Kaitaia by autumn next year, but the Covid-19 lockdown had put a stop to all capital works that were not urgent. The immediate risk of Kaitaia running out of water had been eased by the taking of 1500 cubic metres of water daily from a bore owned by Te Rarawa and NgāiTakoto, for a contracted period of 100 days.

It would not be possible to adjust the timeline until the Covid-19 lockdown had been lifted, he said, allowing work to resume on capital projects that could not be ranked as an emergency.

Work to enable the taking of water from a bore at Sweetwater for bulk carriers was continuing, however. Mr Finch was expecting pre-treatment equipment that would resolve the turbidity issue with that water to to arrive from Auckland today or tomorrow. In the meantime bulk carriers were still taking water from Kaitaia's town supply, Mr Finch expecting the bore to come on stream by the end of next week.