Drinking-water Management Current Issues Update 3

Update 3 – How are Hastings District Council getting on - September 2016

Even though the media have taken the pressure off Hastings District Council (HDC), Brett Chapman, Dylan Stuijt and their teams have been proactive in finding the cause of the recent contamination and preparing Havelock North for the coming summer.

  • The HDC team are getting back normal, and weekend work has diminished although daily testing across the network continues at 32 sites.
  • HDC have noticed a significant increase in public interest in water, (milky water, blue water complaints) there is an increase in leak detection by public although a good thing it has unfortunately come with an increase in expectations to respond quicker for non-urgent repairs.
  • Hawkes Bay Regional Council, Hawkes Bay District Health Board and HDC have a joint testing programme to investigate the Brookvale bore contamination, including:
    • Ground penetrating radar
    • Electromagnetic surface testing
    • Terrain modelling and over lying rain modelling to trace possible sourcecontaminants on the surface.
    • Extensive dye tracing throughout the immediate area surrounding the bores. Die tracing test instrument from Australia that can analyse multiple traces (locations) at once.
  • A camera inspection of the bores is scheduled towards the end of the programme. Bores are being run to wasteoffline to re-establish aquifer conditions.
  • No obvious cause of contamination has been identified as yet.
  • HDC are currently in advanced planning stage for installing cartridge filters and UV for the Brookvale bores in order for them to supplement the Hastings supply and cope with the expected summer demand.The decision on chlorination is yet to be made however there is provision to include chlorination post treatment. At least one bore is required to operate.
  • HDC are taking the opportunity to review their long term strategies for network, renewals and upgrades in order to re-assess options for the most efficient way of operating the supply in the future.
  • The national inquiry is due to start next week.
  • Chlorination for Hastings and Havelock North will continue until at least mid-November.

Not surprisingly HDC (and others in the industry) now have concerns on the perception of ground water security by using age testing and how this is determined. GNS are writing a future update to help explain this process to the industry.

The following public forum has been created for members to provide comments and their experiences.

http://forum.waternz.org.nz/index.php?sid=e9fdf326a4f37e3bfbd76b1321837aa4

Regards
Noel Roberts
Technical Manager
Water New Zealand

Havelock North Water New Zealand