Sewer pipeline across Auckland's Hobson Bay to be removed

By ALAN PERROTT

Hobson Bay's dilapidated sewer pipe is to be replaced by an underground pipeline by 2007.

Watercare Services yesterday announced it is seeking resource consent for a four-year, $47 million project to move the unsightly sewer line underground.

Their decision follows lengthy public consultation and reverses the bulk water supplier's earlier preference to replace the 90-year-old eyesore with a new 2km $26.5 million overground pipe.

The existing pipe will be demolished. The buried pipe will mostly follow the same course.

Owen Gill of Watercare said the decision was good news for the Hobson Bay. "Overall, the environment is the winner ... as many residents in the area know, the system often overflows into the sea when it rains."

The landmark pipeline was originally built to carry waste to the old Orakei holding tanks, now Kelly Tarlton's aquarium, to where it was flushed out to sea on the tide.

It now helps to move about a quarter of the 304,000cu m of wastewater Auckland produces daily to the Mangere treatment plant.

The new line will halt the sewage overflows at four danger points in the present system. It will cut the overflow by 75 per cent at another point and by 25 per cent at a sixth.

It will provide extra storage capacity, worth about $17 million, and could be connected to future pipelines that might be needed to meet growing demand on the city's sewerage and stormwater network.

Mr Gill said funding for the pipeline would come from Watercare's planned capital expenditure.

Under the heading Project Hobson, the Watercare website said the costs of the upgrade would be met by the residents, homeowners and businesses of Auckland, Waitakere, Manukau and Papakura Cities.

The water company is now lodging a resource consent application with the Auckland Regional Council and starting an engineering study of the project before embarking on another round of public consultation.

The pipeline will not be missed by Dan Chappell of the Hobson Bay Action Group.

"This is fantastic news and vindicates our original rejection of Watercare's plans."

Mr Chappell said the decision would make a lot of people, including many who do not live alongside Hobson Bay, very happy.

Auckland Mayor John Banks also applauded the decision and said it would transform the bay into a first-class marine reserve.

"I am delighted."

Mr Banks, a cheerleader for the Eastern Highway planned to cross the bay, said residents would be pleased to see the prehistoric sewerage eyesore go.