News and Updates for Awatere Water Consumers

Awatere Water Treatment Plant Community Update December 2017

The start date for the construction of Seddon's Water Treatment Plant will be early in the new year. The contractor is in the final stages of obtaining the necessary resource consent. Consent is expected to be granted before Christmas but, given how close it is to the Christmas break, the contractor is now expected to begin the earthworks in January.

While this is taking place, the contractor is working on a number of others areas of the project to ensure a smooth construction period, these include:

Delivery to NZ of the reservoir from the UK is expected just after the new year.
Membranes for the treatment plant are expected to arrive in late January/early February.
The contractor for the civil works has started to have machinery delivered to Marlborough from their base ready to begin work.
Crafar Crouch are beginning work on the reticulation network in Seddon as a part of this project also.

Next update will be early next year.

Algal Event Update - 17 August 2017

Letter to Awatere/Seddon Residents - 2017 Algal Event and Seddon WTP - 17 August (PDF, 371.2KB)

Dirty Water Notice 11 August 2017

The excavation and pipe laying works extending the intake gallery at the headworks to lower the pipe deeper into the gravel bed will be completed today, Friday 11 August. There will still be some tidying up to be completed next week but the activities that have caused the very dirty water spikes through the network will be complete. This work has been undertaken to try to limit the impact of the algae now present in the stream from getting into the network. Placing the pipe deeper into the gravels and laying more filter fabric around the intake pipe is designed to create more natural filtering to limit the algae entering the pipe system. Flushing to clear the mains of the silts and algae build up continues. This will be on-going over the weekend and into next week. While this is taking place there may still be some slight discolouration but this will be very much less than over the last two weeks.

During this time residents are reminded they need to boil any water used for consumption, food preparation and cleaning teeth. The water from the public taps at the school remains clean and available for public use.

Council wish to thank the Awatere/Seddon community with persevering with the inconvenience the dirty water events have created while we undertake the work necessary to reduce the impact for the algae.

Alteration to Headworks progress - 4 August 2017

Work at the headworks to try to limit algae getting into the system continues to make good progress. Some folk may not be aware of what we are undertaking to limit algae in the system, below is a short description of this work and some erosion control which was completed a few weeks ago, this should be read in conjunction with the photo attached.

The erosion & algae control works will be undertaken as follows:

Downstream area - erosion control (red dotted outline on photo)

Divert stream away from the eroded bank, and undertake fish recovery (advise and/or assistance from Council's Freshwater Scientist will be sought in relation to fish recovery),
Cut out existing track and bench,
Sub-excavate, place and compact gravel to form batters - it may be possible to use dozer to spread layers for compaction of upstream channel material

Armour with imported rock approx. 300 tonne

Upstream area - erosion control (red dotted outline below)

1. Divert stream, fish recovery

2. Channel Improvements to work undertaken in 2012 but now damaged by storm in April 2017

Dirty Water Notice - 3 August 2017

The alterations at the headworks to try to limit algae getting into the system are progressing well. Today the first pipe string of 36 metres should be across the main channel.

However in making these alterations we experienced low water pressure in the network with some properties at the top end of the system not having any water at all for a couple of hours last night. This occurred while the trench was being de-watered to enable works to be undertaken in a deep trench across the bed of the stream. Then when the dewatering was reduced some dirty water got into the network. This will be affecting all residents this morning.

There are likely to be further periods of this later today but we are trying to keep this impact as low as possible. While the work is going on so close to the operating intake pipe some dirty water is unavoidable if we are to keep some water flowing into the network.

Algal Event and Other Updates 2014 to mid-2017

Water Treatment Information up to October 2012

The Awatere Settlers' Association Water Sub Committee and Marlborough District Council investigated the use of a MIOX water treatment system for the Awatere Water Supply. MIOX was the most economic option at the time for the Awatere, providing a partial treatment option at a relatively low cost, and offering the possibility of complementing full treatment should the Government retain the current legislation making compliance with the Drinking-water Standards for NZ mandatory from 1 July 2014.