All systems nearly Y2K ready at Shore council

By Chris Barton

If the Year 2000 bug cuts power to North Shore City, the council has backup to make sure no sewage gets into Lake Pupuke.

Y2K project manager John Gunn said the council's contingency planning took a "risk versus cost" assessment of what to do should the power go off.

Power company UnitedNetworks has confirmed that supply to the North Shore has been checked for Y2K problems, but like everyone, it makes no guarantees.

"We've been advised that if there is a power outage, it will be localised and temporary," said Mr Gunn.

The council has hired five generators for 30 days at a cost of about $35,000 to provide power if it needs to pump sewage from holding tanks around Lake Pupuke and other "environmentally sensitive areas" such as North Shore beaches.

Mr Gunn said the tanks had a holding capacity of about 24 hours and were not expected to be heavily loaded during the millennium cut-over period.

Sucker trucks would also be available to protect beaches from overflows and key pumping stations would be emptied before midnight on New Year's Eve to minimise the impact of any problem.

North Shore residents need not worry about water supply in case of power cuts because almost all would continue to receive water fed by gravity from reservoirs, although pressure would be reduced.

A water tanker would also be on standby.

Mr Gunn said the council was also trying to discourage residents from overreacting to the Y2K threat by filling baths with water before the date change.

If everyone did that, it would put an abnormal load on water supply and on the wastewater system if the baths were emptied at the same time the next day.

He said North Shore was well prepared for Y2K with remedying and testing of critical infrastructure - such as the Rosedale Road sewage treatment plant - now complete.

The council has budgeted $600,000 over two years for Y2K remedies, excluding repair work, which has come out of departmental operational budgets.

It also brought forward the purchase of another generator - powered by methane gas from the sewage treatment process - for the Rosedale plant.

"It's a bit like your last-minute preparations for an overseas holiday. We're checking and rechecking, we've got our passports and travellers cheques, and we've remembered all the other things like having someone clear the mail and feed the pets."

The process had turned up an interesting potential problem with the council crematorium, which cannot function without power.

However, since it was closed for four days over the New Year, there were unlikely to be problems.

Nevertheless, checks had been made with undertakers and hospital morgues to ensure alternative arrangements could be made should death not be put on hold during millennium celebrations.

Mr Gunn said the council had taken part in recent Y2K tests with the Auckland Regional Monitoring Centre of the Ministry of Emergency Management, and was confident about reporting incidents.

The tests of telephone, fax and radio links between a range of organisations in Auckland were run on November 15.

Dean Myburg, of Manukau City Council, oversaw the testing. He said it adopted a worst-case scenario and received 50 faxes over a three-hour period.

The process was useful for showing the robustness of the dedicated fax links for reporting, as well as the backup radio links, which all held up well.