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A major stage in Watercare’s $45 million Waiwera water and wastewater upgrade has been completed, with a new submersible pump station installed as part of work to end treated wastewater discharges into the Waiwera Estuary.
The pump station will work with a new 4.5km wastewater pipeline to transfer wastewater from Waiwera to the Army Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant, where it will be treated instead of at the existing Waiwera plant.
Once the new system is operating, treated wastewater will no longer be discharged into the estuary, a change expected to improve local water quality, Watercare says.
Hibiscus and Bays Local Board chair Alexis Poppelbaum says the project will deliver long-term environmental benefits.
“Ending treated wastewater discharges into the Waiwera Estuary is a major win for water quality and the local environment.”
The new pump station was installed in a single day using a 400-tonne crane after being preassembled by contractor Fulton Hogan and transported to the site.
Watercare senior project manager Paul Thorn says the preassembled structure helped speed up construction and reduce disruption to the existing wastewater ponds.
Those ponds will remain in use as storage, providing a combined capacity of 17,500 cubic metres to help manage peak flows and wet weather events.
The wider project also includes replacement of an ageing watermain supplying Waiwera township from the reservoir on Waiwera Hill.
Installation of the new watermain has been completed, with final connections now being planned. Work is also continuing on the new wastewater pipeline, including the gravity main between Hatfields Beach and the Hatfields Wastewater Pump Station.
Watercare says both pipeline projects remain on track for completion by the end of the year.
