Whanganui's wet industries will bear the brunt of increasing wastewater disposal rates as a result of the district council's decision to build a new $41.2 million treatment plant.
Trade waste rates for the old plant totalled $2.25 million, whereas the council's projected trade waste rates for the new plant are $3.5 million. That's an increase of 56 per cent.
Residential ratepayers pay $350.89 for wastewater disposal, but that's set to rise by 33 per cent to $468 under the new scheme.
As the Chronicle reported in June, Affco plant manager Troy Lambly wrote to district councillors to "emphatically" state that the company would not use the new plant.
Before the council voted to proceed with the Cardno BTO plant, council chief executive Kym Fell had been talking to the city's wet industries to find an alternative treatment solution for them.