The Whanganui District Council has initiated legal proceedings to recover costs of more than $1 million to repair damage to a main sewer pipe.
The interceptor pipe at Karoro Road, off Beach Road, Castlecliff, was damaged in September last year when a contractor drilled through it.
In briefing papers presented to council's infrastructure and special projects committee on Wednesday it was stated that Powerco instructed Opus Consultants to undertake geotechnical investigations to support a foundation design for a new transformer at Powerco's substation at Karoro Road.
"Opus employed a contractor, Geotech Drilling Limited (GDL), to drill a bore at a potential site on Karoro Road to extract a core sample," the report said.
"In the process of drilling the bore, GDL damaged our interceptor pipe by drilling through the top and bottom of the pipe.