Sign In / Register
Hibiscus and Bays Local Board says they want no more surprises after the Army Bay wastewater treatment plant capacity issues arose last month (Hibiscus Matters, November 18).
At the Watercare board meeting on December 12, Hibiscus and Bays Local Board Chair Alexis Poppelbaum shared concerns on behalf of the community and said that the announcement had caused a great deal of anxiety in the industry.
“It’s mum and dad businesses that are going to be the hardest impacted, where it’s causing a lot of anxiety. They are worried about whether they are going to have to lay off staff and what the future is going to hold,” Poppelbaum said.
Last month’s Watercare announcement stated that resource consents for new homes or businesses on the Coast would come with the condition that they can not be connected to the public wastewater network until the plant has capacity. The capacity upgrade is planned for 2031, seven years away.
Poppelbaum acknowledged the current constraints were likely exacerbated by the government’s fast track approvals bill but highlighted that local elected members could be great advocates for Watercare. Though surprise announcements about infrastructure problems had the potential drive a wedge between Watercare and the local board
“You are quite lucky that this hasn’t exploded into a bigger problem.”
Poppelbaum had three requests. For Watercare to be clear and transparent in terms of constraints; to look at alternative solutions to expedite and upgrade infrastructure; and finally, to be more “nimble” in infrastructure planning.
In his response, Watercare’s chief strategy and planning officer Priyan Perera said that for the last six months, Watercare was focused on building better relationships with local elected members with a ‘no surprises’ approach.
“For the Hibiscus Coast that has been developing for some time,” Perera said, referencing a community liaison group for the community.
“In terms of our planning being nimble – the more a plan deviates from a plan the more it’s going to cost for everybody.”
Poppelbaum commended Watercare’s engagement but clarified that the community liaison group last met in 2019, five years ago.
Watercare board chair Geoff Hunt said that the next steps were around communicating with developers about their plans for building.
“We know we need to do better in terms of updating where things are at. With capacity, being a bit more upfront as opposed to saying ‘we have got a plan and it will be okay’,” Hunt said. “In this case, it was clearly showing up that it wasn’t going to be okay.”
Watercare’s wastewater treatment planning team is currently preparing a comparative analysis for Army Bay wastewater plant including cost options for future plant upgrade.
