The current dams which supply Marton water could be turned into a recreational asset in favour of using ground water. Photo / Bevan Conley
The current dams which supply Marton water could be turned into a recreational asset in favour of using ground water. Photo / Bevan Conley
Two bores could become the new primary source of Marton's water supply.
Rangitikei District Council's Marton Water Supply Strategy discusses whether the Calico Line and Tutaenui production bores should be used instead of the existing water treatment p lant and Tutaenui impoundment dams.
The strategy and indicative development process was first endorsed by the council's Assets and Infrastructure Committee in February and was discussed by councillors again this month.
"The original objective of the strategy was to come up with something that we can produce water of a high standard," council's principal advisor for infrastructure, Arno Benadie said.
The strategy considers possible solutions for a raw water source, treatment, treated water storage and a distribution network.
Over the past 80 years, 32 reports covering different aspects of the Marton water supply have been produced and the majority recommend making use of groundwater as an alternative raw water source, Benadie said.
He said all the reports state the dams were the biggest challenge with the quality always changing and being hard to treat.
"They all state if you want to solve a problem you have to consider alternative options of raw water supplies and then you consider all the other alternatives that are out there including the Rangitikei River but every time the costs to get these done is too expensive so all of them come back to groundwater," he said.
Benadie said ideally in the future the dams would be used for recreational and stock use rather than for domestic water use.
Benadie said the Calico Line and Tutaenui production bores collectively supply 5700 cubic metres which is a lot more than the 3300 cubic metres the current dams hold.
"If we would consider making use of it, in other words making use of groundwater as an alternative that means we don't have to spend extra capital to create these production bores as we already have them so that's a big plus," Benadie said.
Rangitikei mayor Andy Watson.
Another benefit of the bores is if Marton expands in population and they need to add to the water supply they can easily add another bore.
How the groundwater would be treated needed investigation, he said.
"It is one piece of the puzzle that's missing and we need to find out how expensive it would be to treat."
A water distribution network will be included in the new Asset Management Strategy that Benadie said will look at the performances of all water networks in the Rangitikei district.
Rangitikei mayor Andy Watson said there were some timing issues in regards to the strategy due to the Three Waters Review cross-agency initiative led by Minister of Local Government, Nanaia Mahuta.
"We could well go to a situation where another organisation is responsible for providing the water for the lower half of the North Island or the country is split up through regulators," Watson said.
"We need some time to get all our ducks in a line, both nationally and locally, because we'll be looking at putting work in place at the earliest in two years' time so to timeframe it, that's where it's sitting."
