Source: Radio New Zealand
Tiaki Wai board chair Will Peet. Supplied / Tiaki Wai
The chair of Wellington’s new water entity will not promise the Moa Point wastewater treatment plant will be fully fixed by July, when it takes over.
Tiaki Wai board chair Will Peet also will not give “absolute confidence” that people will be able to swim on south coast beaches next summer, but says he will provide updates about that in the coming months.
But he says the entity has a good shot at significantly improving Wellington’s water infrastructure, despite having to deal with serious problems.
Directors of the water entity met on Thursday in central Wellington.
Tiaki Wai is replacing Wellington Water and inheriting the region’s assets – providing drinking water, wastewater, and piped stormwater services from July.
It is also in line to inherit the extensively damaged Moa Point, which after a major failure earlier this month was sending millions of litres of raw sewage into Cook Strait every day.
Officials are currently tight-lipped about the cause of the delay, or when the plant will be fixed, citing an independent Crown review and insurance processes.
But Wellington Water chief executive Pat Dougherty previously said 80 percent of the electronics were damaged and some equipment parts may need to be brought in from overseas.
Peet said he expected to get an “operating plant of-sorts” by July, doubted it would be fully-fixed.
“There’s a lot of work to do with the plant, I think they’re still discovering what the state of things are. We will be getting some updates over the next while – I wouldn’t be making commitments that all things will be in and done in 90 days – not at all.”
This map shows the Moa Point sewage spill along Wellington’s south coast. The pipeline network is shown in red, including the 5-metre and 1.8-kilometre long outfall pipes discharging to the ocean. Supplied, CC BY-NC-ND
He said he was working through the specific details of the transfer agreement with Wellington City Council, including making sure the plant was able to do what it needed to.
“If there are any changes we’ll come back and let people know about what that is, but right now the focus is not about the legal agreements and the funds – it has to be on the recovery and minimising the amount of sewage going into the south coast.”
Peet said he would not comment on what caused the plant’s failure while an investigation was underway, though he said he was “interested” to find out like everyone else.
Asked whether he could give absolute confidence people would be able to swim at the beaches next year, once the entity had controlled the plant for months, Peet said he would provide updates on that in the future.
“I don’t think anybody in my position should give you something that says absolute confidence because that wouldn’t be the right thing to do. I’ll be able to give you more of an update on that in the coming weeks and months, as we know more as we get closer to taking over.”
(h) ‘A lot to be done’ before July – officials
During the Tiaki Wai board meeting, establishment director Dougal List said progress had been made in the asset transfer agreements, but there was “a lot of work still to go” before day one.
The complex paperwork and financial arrangements were currently being worked through with councils, List said.
Peet agreed, saying there was “a lot of work to be done”.
Wellingtonians – those living in Wellington City, Porirua, Hutt City, and Upper Hutt – would receive a separate water bill from 1 July for water services.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Peet said the organisation was “well in train” with being ready from July.
Untreated water leaking onto the capital’s south coast in early February. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
New chief executive Michael Brewster, who previously led Tasmania’s water utility, would start at the organisation on 2 March.
“Look, Moa point is a significant issue, but I don’t want to take away from all the other stuff that’s going on… there’s still Seaview, Titahi Bay, Karori wastewater treatment plants operating.”
The new entity had been promising more investment in Wellington’s chronically underfunded water infrastructure – but warned it may come at a higher cost.
Asked whether he was confident Wellington’s water infrastructure would improve, Peet said: “It will, but it will take some time.”
“I am confident that things will improve, we have got a very different makeup to what Wellington Water and the councils have had – we have got a good shot at making this significantly better.”
But he said there was 800 kilometres of the network where pipes had passed the end of their life, and “serious problems” to deal with.
“It didn’t take five minutes to get like this, it’s going to take longer than five minutes to fix.”
He said it was likely water bills would increase, but expected Wellingtonians to ask what improvements they were getting for that higher cost.
Already people are paying about 30 – 40 percent of their rates on water services, a spokesperson said.
On 25 March Tiaki Wai will release its water services strategy, which would give people a pricing strategy for their water bills, which will be different, depending on where they live in the region.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
