30 | Rangitikei District Council: REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Virginia Wright One treatment plant for two towns A new treatment plant will be built on the outskirts of Bulls with a 14 kilometre pipeline transporting wastewater from Marton. Your Business, Your Industry, Your News. Volume 6 | Issue 2 | April 2021 www.waterfordpress.co.nz ‘Excellence in Energy’ Taranaki’s Todd Energy will have a key role to play as New Zealand moves toward a low emissions economy. Page 8 Waikato farmers Dean & Ang Finnerty have expanded their dairy cow operation into a successful goat milking enterprise as well PAGE 10 Turning challenge into opportunity AUTUMN 2022 www.waterfordpress.co.nz Volume 6 | Issue 3 | July 2021 www.waterfordpress.co.nz Making waves Back on track New Zealand hydrofoil maker Armstrong is generating interest around the world with its high performance products. Work on the ambitious NZCIS facility in Upper Hutt is progressing well after Covid disruptions. PAGE 70 PAGE 10 Healthy delivery A new elective surgery facility in Hastings will provide a big boost to the region’s operating capacity. PAGE 52 Volume 6 | Issue 5 | December 2021 www.waterfordpress.co.nz Cheers Boys! YoungWellington irm3Māori Boys is creating a buzz with it’s ground-breakingWai Manuka natural beverage. PAGE 45 Passion and pride New Plymouth’s Energyworks has forged a strong reputation in 50 years of business. PAGE 64 Seaview upgrade CentrePort’s SeaviewWharf facility is set for a major upgrade to bring it up to international standards. PAGE 14 businesscentral Each edition priority delivered to your door. i i i i li . www.waterfordpress.co.nz/subscriptions . . . 03 983 5525 Stay informed; we work with business owners and decision-makers across all economic sectors, pro iling their success. i ; i i i i - ll i , ili i . The Rangitikei District covers one of the largest land areas in the Central North Island, with seven wastewater systems in its care. When the Rangitikei District Council was looking at options to manage two of those, the sewage and wastewater from Marton and Bulls, it wanted a solution that is cost-effective and sustainable, with an eye to the future. Both towns have wastewater treatment consenting issues with Marton’s the most problematic as Rangitikei District Mayor Andy Watson explains. “We have a treatment plant that discharges to a stream that dries up in summer so we’re discharging basically to a non-receiving environment.” Mayor Watson is also mindful that with the arrival of the Three Waters reforms discharging to water is increasingly unpalatable at a government level. “So you’re far better off in my opinion of going down the process of looking for a solution that involves discharge to land.” Through the experience of other councils they were made aware that one of the most significant costs for these projects was getting it consented. “So if you can do one consent that satisfies two problems you’re far better off,” explains Mayor Watson, “because literally you can spend tens of millions of dollars going through the consenting stage.” The clay soil at Marton makes it unsuitable for both a land disposal treatment plant, and the eventual income that could be generated by that land. A new treatment plant will therefore be built on the outskirts of Bulls (population 2000); a 14 kilometre pipeline will transport the wastewater from Marton’s 4600 residents to the new plant where their combined sewage and grey water will be treated and disposed of to land. In the future it may also cater for industrial waste. Building one treatment plant as a solution to both towns’ problems also stacked up from a purely practical point of view. Bulls is not far away from Marton and the trajectory is largely downhill. “So no need to push the proverbial uphill,” says Mayor Watson. Although wastewater systems are still being built around New Zealand that in whole or part dispose to water, the Rangitikei Council are looking ahead with their decision to dispose to land. The wastewater will go through multiple screenings and organic decomposition processes to end up as a fluid that is relatively high in nitrogen. “You can compare it for instance to fertilisers,” says Mayor Watson. “You pump it out and literally you can grow grass or trees on that land with the nitrogen acting as a growing source.” When sprayed onto pasture the resulting grass can be harvested as baleage and return an income to the council in a “cut and carry” operation. The eventual uses that the land in Bulls will be put to depends on factors such as what the particular soil type will lend itself to. “The end goal is to make money from this so we have a solution that is environmentally friendly and acceptable to all parties including iwi, and we can grow a crop that we can harvest. That crop may well be trees.” The Rangitikei District Council are working on this project with a degree of urgency according to the Mayor, partly due to the need to comply but also knowing that the Three Waters Reforms are around the corner. Whereas some councils have chosen to wait before they upgrade Rangitikei have done the opposite. “The strategic thinking is that if we have started the project instead of waiting for Three Waters we’ll be the first cab off the rank, and they’ll need to finish what we’ve started including taking on the loans we will have accrued; that’s a guarantee from government.” In the short term with the pipeline underway they’re looking to purchase land about “the size of a very small farm”, to house the plant and take the nitrogen heavy water which will help to generate the income from whichever crop is planted there. “The end goal is to make money from this so we have a solution that is environmentally friendly and acceptable to all parties including iwi, and we can grow a crop that we can harvest. That crop may well be trees.”
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