Business South March 2021

40 | DAIRY INDUSTRY Westland Milk Products Ocean Outfall project a “win/win for everyone” T from page 38 ventured through a “penguin-proof fence’’ built on side. The project has been designed to ensure Westland District Council can make use of the ocean outfall pipeline to discharge its own treated wastewater should it ever decide to do so in the future. “This would be a cost-effective option for the Council and it would be a first in New Zea- land where business and Council have worked together to minimize costs to the ratepayer with a solution that’s a win/win for everyone,’’ Mark says. “So we had to engineer the solution taking the environment and risk management into account. A tunnel boring machine with a 20 tonne drill bit 22 metres long was used for the process,” says Mark. With Beca selected as engineers, the project was broken into two packages of work. Hokitika-based contracting and construction company Westroads were awarded respon- sibility for Package One which involved the landside work, while McConnell Dowell were awarded the design and build contract for Package Two involving all marine side works. The landside pipe is connected to a deaer- ation chamber that removes oxygen from the liquids and the highly treated wastewater is hydraulically gravity fed from the chamber through the undersea pipeline and discharged through a duck-bill shaped diffuser under the seabed, in accordance with resource consent conditions. With construction work near completion, commissioning of the project will take place from February with the pipeline becoming op- erational towards the end of the first quarter of 2021. Working closely with the Blue Penguin Trust because of the pipeline’s close proximity to the penguin’s natural nesting area, exten- sive planning ensured all contractors were adequately trained in the event any wildlife “We didn’t use an overhead structure because of the aesthetics, and land discharge wasn’t feasible. So we had to engineer the solution taking the environment and risk management into account.” The outfall project has been designed to ensure Westland District Council can make use of the ocean outfall pipeline to discharge its own treated wastewater should it need to. T A rewarding industry - page 42