Wastewater well within resource consent conditions for new plant

Published on 28 September 2018

28 September 2018

Treated wastewater from the new Whanganui wastewater treatment plant is already well within the conditions of its temporary resource consent, despite the plant still being in the commissioning phase.

“The wastewater treatment plant is already exceeding expectations in terms of the cleanliness of the water at the end of the treatment process, in this relatively early stage of the project,” says Infrastructure Committee Chair Cr Alan Taylor.

“The quality of the treated water is well within the limits of what it will need to be by 1 November 2018, when the resource consent becomes more stringent.”

The Horizons Regional Council resource consent specifies the concentration of key contaminants which can be discharged to the ocean and wastewater is sampled regularly to ensure the conditions of the resource consent are met.

Cr Taylor also says some odour is expected from the plant throughout the commissioning process. 

“A slight smell was always expected as we work through commissioning at the plant, especially when parts of the structure are opened up for testing. Of course, we are dealing with a plant which treats biological and chemical waste so at times there will be a smell. This is expected to die down once the plant is fully operational in March 2019.”