Power source commissioned

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33095, 9 December 1972, Page 16

Power source commissioned

(New Zealand Press Association)

ROTORUA, December 8.

One of the main sources of water for the Tongariro power development scheme—the western diversion—was commissioned this morning.

It draws water from the headwaters of the Whakapapa and Wanganui Rivers and six tributaries and conveys it through 10 miles of tunnels and open channels to Lake Rotoaira. The s24m contract for the job was let to the Italian

tunnelling firm, CodelfaCogedar, in 1967. It included the s2m intake structure at the Whakapapa River. Water flowed through the tunnel for the first time today and into Lake Otamangakau, a man-made lake. From there it is carried to Lake Rotoaira via the man-made Wairehu Canal.

In the lake it joins the stockpile of water which will flow through the four-mile Tokaanu Tunnel to the powerhouse at Tokaanu, turn the huge generators, and then flow into Lake Taupo. The other main source of water for the scheme is from the Tongariro River. 12 MILES Waters from tributaries in the Whangehu and Maowhanga catchments will augment the headwaters of the river, after travelling through 12 miles of tunnels under the Kaimanawa mountains. Water will be diverted from the Tongariro into Rotoaira by the Poutu tunnel—recently commissioned — and three miles and a half of con-crete-lined canal, which is also finished.

The development scheme will harness water from a catchment area of more than 1000 square miles, and will generate a third as much power as all the stations in the Waikato River chain. Through Taupo, the water will also feed the hydroelectric stations on the Waikato.