Upgrade issues back like bad smell

Just when we thought it was safe to go back into the wastewater ... just when we thought the elephant in the room had been put to bed.

Even if that bed came with a $25 million price tag, at least Wanganui District Council had planned, prepared and peer-reviewed - and the nightmare of the failing wastewater treatment plant had been dealt with.

Time to move on to something else, surely? But no. Like a bad smell, it is back again - now at a cost of $38 million, a possible three-year delay till work starts, and still with questions over dealing with sludge and ongoing running costs.

It would seem unfair to suggest the council has not done its homework.

It has enough reports and studies to fill a treatment pond, and last year's peer reviews and question-and-answer session with outside experts appeared to have arrived at the optimum solution - albeit, a very expensive one.

But a number of people - some of them with a little expertise of their own - question whether council has got it right. Or, to be fair, whether the outside experts have got it right.

There are those who say that if the aerators had been working correctly, the plant's problems would never have arisen, and that aerators could still be part of a much cheaper solution.

There are those who say that until the issue of the huge amount of waste produced by the wet industries is addressed, we will always be stuck in the sludge.

The council has set itself on a course and it would be difficult - embarrassing even - to do a U-turn and go back to the drawing board.

But the latest difficulties with the plant upgrade may well have a few councillors wanting to have another look at all that expert advice.