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Watercare held two consultation afternoons in Snells Beach and Warkworth last month, presenting a range of wastewater options, ranging from do-nothing to pumping highly treated wastewater into underground aquifers.
But it was evident from the Warkworth meeting that wastewater does not draw a crowd. The members of the public who trickled in to the Old Masonic Hall on March 17 were well outnumbered by the gang of eager Watercare staff, who were on hand to answer questions.
There are 12 options currently under consideration.
The front-runner is for an upgraded treatment plant at Snells Beach, which would also service Warkworth via a pipeline, which would continue to use the existing ocean outfall pipeline near Martins Bay. The current Warkworth treatment plant would be decommissioned.
Other options include using different outfalls, disposing treated wastewater on land, discharging highly treated wastewater to an aquifer or piping the discharge from an upgraded Warkworth plant through to Snells Beach and on to the existing Martins Bay outfall.
Another option is to upgrade both treatment plants and continue using the existing outfalls – Martins Bay and the Mahurangi River.
A pipeline could even be built to connect the Mahurangi waste systems to the Army Bay or Rosedale treatment plants.
Watercare is under pressure to get infrastructure in place in time to meet Council’s growth strategy for the area. The new wastewater system will need to be in place by 2022, when land for an additional 3200 to 3800 houses is planned to come online in the north of Warkworth.
Watercare will come back with a draft plan for consultation later this year.
People can still email feedback to warkworthsnells@water.co.nz
