On 18 July the new Fairlie water treatment plant started operating. This is a project that has been more than 20 years in the making.
For a long time residents in Kimbell and Fairlie have been at risk of protozoan contamination, have had to boil their water at times, and have suffered distinctly brown water (turbidity) after prolonged periods of rain. Protozoal contamination was the cause of recent problems with water in Queenstown. Micro-biological contamination was one of the underlying issues in the Havelock North incident which resulted in New Zealand water quality compliance upgrades being undertaken in earnest.
The new plant contains a sophisticated filter system to remove dirt, bacteria and microbiology through a system that filters down to 1micron.
The plant has two new storage tanks that give us water storage for approximately 1.5 days in summer or 2-3 days in winter. This helps us manage water flow when turbidity is high and allows us to enable water to flow even after an event when power is lost.
Water is lightly chlorinated as an additional safety measure, and its pH can be corrected. Water pH is continually monitored and when it is mildly acidic a correction is added to make it neutral. This will help prevent metals leaching from pipework into the water, as well as 'bluing' of water caused by copper leaching.
There is some misinformation in our community about this project being significantly over budget. The costs on this project are close to expectations, being only 2.5% ($200,000) over the budget. The team worked really hard to keep with the budget limit of $7.3m, which was challenging given that the budget was set 2 years ago and inflation has been running significantly higher in the infrastructure space - in fact over 25%.
OPEN DAY
The public are invited to come to an Open Day on 22 September (by when we hope the weather will be a little warmer) to view the plant and to ask questions about its operations. The plant will be open 10.00am to 4.00pm, and details will be advertised nearer the time.
Mayor Anne Munro being shown the workings of the new plant at the recent opening.