| 25 T T Russell Fredric Upgrade builds resilience Gore District Council is upgrading the Mataura water treatment plant at a cost of $3.5 million. Southland: Gore District Council REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Upgrading the Mataura water treatment plant will build automation, resilience and improved water quality into a key item of infrastructure, Gore District Council 3 Waters Asset Manager Matt Bayliss says. The council is currently upgrading the plant to ensure it meets New Zealand Drinking Water Standards and improves the quality of potable water from the plant. “Also, we need the upgrade to meet chemical storage requirements and health and safety requirements and all the electrical equipment was getting towards the end of its useful life and the filters needed refurbished.” As a part of the planning and budget process, many options were considered, including supplying Mataura’s water from the existing Gore water supply, building a totally new treatment plant, or having a combined supply with the Alliance Mataura plant. “We found a refurbishment of the existing plant was going to be the best solution.” The primary water source for Mataura is a dam on the Pleura Stream located east of Mataura on Cameron Road; this supplies an average of 1,080 cubic metres a day. “We have consent to take up to 1,500 cubic metres per day. “The water is piped from a dam on the Pleura Stream to the Mataura water treatment plant where it is treated before being distributed to Mataura properties.” During dry periods when the Pleura Dam cannot meet demand, water is taken from the Mataura River. The existing plant incorporated a conventional process of chemical coagulation which binds particles in the water to make their removal easier, plus sand filtration then chlorine and caustic treatment for pH correction. Treatment through the new plant will involve a similar process but will add ultraviolet disinfection which will enable treatment to a finer microbial level. “The existing treatment plant almost meets the protozoa requirements of the [New Zealand] drinking water standards; we are expecting with the upgrades to the filters it will then meet the drinking water standards, but the UV treatment will provide an extra layer of protection over and above the minimum requirements of the drinking water standards.” The main contractor for the project is Filtec which has also engaged a range of local contractors. “One of the big things is the replacement of all the electrical controls; what’s there is basically original from the 1960’s build. “As you can imagine there’s been quite a lot of advancement in automation and monitoring; that will all be replaced with modern technology and a lot more automation around the cleaning processes of the filters.” The plant has two filters and refurbishing involves decommissioning each one for eight weeks, with this being undertaken after April 1 which is past the peak summer demand. A lot of the existing pipework, which is in reasonably poor condition will be replaced with new stainless steel and PVC, the chemical storage room has been gutted and had new chemical storage tanks installed to approved standards while other new pipework will allow reservoirs to be taken out of service for maintenance.” The total budget for the project is $3.5 million. Work started on site last November and is expected to be completed around September/October this year. Commercial, Industrial, Residential, Civil Engineering, Construction throughout Southland and Central, West and South Otago AJAX BUILDING CONTRACTORS LTD PO Box 388 Gore Mataura Highway GORE 9740 Phone: 03 208 9145 Tom: 027 215 1037 www.ajaxbuilding.co.nz Sewer, Drainage & Water Service Installation & Repairs. Solid Waste Management, Cable Installation & General Construction 240 Bond Street, PO Box 1401, Invercargill 9810 Tel: 03 218 7007 Mob: 027 622 9045 Email: bond@bondcontracts.co.nz
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