Waipā District Council has committed to its biggest contract package – more than $86 million – to build a new wastewater treatment plant for Cambridge.
The plant will receive, treat and discharge wastewater from Cambridge, Leamington, Hautapu and Karapiro Domain. It will replace the existing plant in Cambridge west which has been operational since the late 1970s but will struggle to meet increasingly stringent environmental expectations.
Group manager service delivery Dawn Inglis said the new plant will cope with Cambridge’s fast-growing population and also meet much higher environmental standards and commitments to the Waikato River.
“Our existing plant receives wastewater, treats it and then discharges it to land before the water travels to the Waikato River as groundwater. While this form of treatment has been accepted in the past, environmental standards are now much higher,” Inglis said.
“We also have higher aspirations and legal obligations to the health of the Waikato River. The new plant will treat wastewater to a very, very high standard using specialised membrane bioreactor technology. It will be one of the most advanced plants in New Zealand and something to be proud of.”