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Concern that there are not enough wastewater connections to meet demand in Warkworth has prompted one developer to put forward the idea of trucking waste for a year to the Rosedale wastewater treatment plant.
However, Watercare says that although this does occur in other places in Auckland, the suggestion is probably not feasible for Warkworth.
A $123 million water treatment plant being built in Snells Beach, designed to meet future development, won’t come open until at least the end of 2024.
Watercare networks planning manager Andre Stuart says while the current plant is nearing capacity, there is still room for individual new builds wanting to hook into the system.
However, any larger projects may run into problems.
“There are now some constraints on new connections until the Snells Beach wastewater treatment plant is ready,” Stuart says. “We are working with developers on a case-by-case basis to find solutions and enable their developments to go ahead where possible.”
There are several big developments in the pipeline around the Warkworth area, which will see around 2150 new properties needing to be connected to a wastewater system over coming years.
While the numbers look big, local planner Burnette O’Connor doesn’t believe this will be a problem.
Most of these properties will not be ready to be connected before the end of 2024 so there shouldn’t be an issue for them, she says.
One development that does have an earlier timeframe is Plan Change 72, which is currently before Auckland Council. If approved in its current form, this development could see up to 200 dwellings being built off McKinney Road with the first 30 possibly looking to be connected by the end of next year or soon after.
The developer proposed that the first 30 houses be given Watercare connections as usual, but that the wastewater itself would be collected at a central storage point on the site and transported to the Rosedale Waste Water Treatment Plant. This arrangement would remain in place until the Snells Beach plant was operational.
While this scheme has been used elsewhere in the region, Watercare said this might not be feasible as there was little capacity to add to that regional system.
In its submission on Plan Change 72, Watercare added that trucking the waste by road might not be technically feasible either because there was high demand for wastewater tankers in the region, just to meet existing commitments.
The existing Warkworth and Snells Beach wastewater treatment plants will be decommissioned when the new Snells Beach plant opens.
