Aerial view of Lake Rotorua and Mokoia Island. Photo / Ben Fraser
Aerial view of Lake Rotorua and Mokoia Island. Photo / Ben Fraser
Treated effluent from Rotorua's proposed state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant would be cleaner than any water entering the lake from streams in the catchment, it's been revealed.
Rotorua Lakes Council has moved a step closer to a new wastewater treatment plant that would see highly treated effluent flow into Lake Rotorua though an earth treatment and waterfall system.
The council's Strategy, Policy and Finance Committee yesterday unanimously voted in favour of the council's preferred option - discharging treated effluent into the lake at Puarenga Bay.
However the committee made a minor change to the recommendation, adding they would continue to look at other discharge options with mana whenua (people of the land) and Te Tatau o Te Arawa Board - the council's iwi representative board.
According to the council's water solutions director Andy Bell, the new plant would be the best in the Southern Hemisphere and would combine a full membrane bioreactor with additional phosphorous removal and the addition of an ultraviolet disinfection system.
The recommended option would cost an estimated $29 million, but resource consents for the new plant would be applied for early next year.
Just the very thought they are still putting nutrients into the lake when they are supposed to be cleaning it up does not make any sense.
He said other options, including finding a suitable area for land-based discharge, could have cost up to $54 million and would increase council debt by about $36 million.
The proposed upgrade follows the council signing a deed with CNI Iwi Holdings to end the spraying of treated wastewater in the Whakarewarewa Forest by the end of 2019.
Deputy mayor Dave Donaldson said at yesterday's meeting that the water that would go into the lake would be treated to such an extent it would be cleaner than the water from the Awahou Stream, the most pristine stream in the Rotorua catchment, and he would be happy to swim in it.
He was disappointed by the turnout at two council-run open days to discuss the project.
Te Tatau o Te Arawa board members Ana Morrison and Eugene Berryman-Kamp were among the 13 who voted in favour of the recommendation.
Councillors Trevor Maxwell and Janet Wepa were absent.
Mr Berryman-Kamp asked for the addition to the recommendation to ensure local iwi had an opportunity to contribute to any final decisions made by the council.
Councillors also discussed if they could apply for central government and regional council funding for the project.
Te Arawa hapu on the eastern shores of Lake Rotorua are not pleased with the decision.
Eastside resident Nireaha Pirika, who affiliates to Ngati Uenukukopako, told the Rotorua Daily Post his hapu would fight the decision when it came to the resource consent process.
"But it's good they have left the door open for other options, including ours, where we offered land for discharge treatment a few years ago. If they had come to us then we probably wouldn't be in this situation."
He said traditionally all effluent was land-based discharge, "you dug a hole more or less".
Te Arawa Lakes Trust chairman Sir Toby Curtis said he was not in Rotorua yesterday, had not yet been updated on the project and preferred not to comment.
