The treatment plant at Whanganui Prison "is approaching the end of its usable life".
The treatment plant at Whanganui Prison "is approaching the end of its usable life".
Construction of a wastewater pipe linking Whanganui Prison at Kaitoke to Whanganui District Council’s wastewater treatment plant will start this month.
Department of Corrections asset management director Stephen O’Neill said the pipeline and pump station were part of a wider wastewater upgrade project at the prison.
It has an overall cost of around $14 million, which will be paid for by central government.
O’Neill said planning for the new line began in 2019, with several options explored alongside iwi, council and local land owners.
“Currently, wastewater for the prison is treated at a treatment plant owned and operated by Corrections at the prison,” he said.
“While this treatment plant is currently able to treat and discharge the required volumes of wastewater with few issues, it is approaching the end of its usable life and needs a long-term solution to replace it.
He said ownership and operation of the pump station and pipeline would be transferred to the council upon construction, with a commercial agreement in place for the prison’s wastewater to be treated at the council plant.
Whanganui's wastewater treatment plant is located on Airport Road.
Whanganui District Council senior wastewater engineer Tony Hooper said once the prison wastewater pipeline was connected, the prison would pay wastewater rates which went towards maintenance - “as with any wastewater connection in town”.
The pipeline will be around 10km long, running from the prison along Kaitoke Road, State Highway 3, Wikitoria Road, and Airport Road, where the treatment plant is located.
O’Neill said consideration was given to running it through private land at the planning stages.
However, it was “deemed impractical early on” and would have been more costly.
“Several factors were considered when deciding not to proceed with the wastewater pipeline on private land, including construction challenges, additional costs and potential delays likely to occur as a result of needing to organise access to private land,” he said.
“Potential ongoing maintenance and access challenges for the council after ownership is transferred were also a factor in not proceeding.
“As part of due diligence on assessing the options, some initial exploratory discussions were had but no formal request or offer from neighbouring landowners was made due to the constraints identified in the investigation phase.”
O’Neill said the prison’s population was not reaching its limit and the facility remained well within its operational capacity.
Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present, his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.
