Council balks at cost, need for filter plant

Press, 1 May 1984, Page 9

Council balks at cost, need for filter plant

The addition of a filtration plant to the proposed sewerage system at Lincoln will add another $53 to each ratepayer’s annual bill, a planning tribunal hearing was told yesterday. x The Ellesmere County Council was appealing against a North Canterbury Catchment and Regional Water Board decision on the discharge of treated sewage effluent into the L2 River and thence to Lake Ellesmere. The Regional Water Board agreed to give the council a water right to discharge into the lake up to 1700 cubic metres of treated sewage effluent a day from a primary oxidation pond it plans to build into the L2 River, with the provision that a treatment plant also be built. The Regional Water Board believes the proposed pond alone would not sufficiently reduce the nutrientcontaining algae which could destroy the delicate

balance of Lake Ellesmere’s water. The Ellesmere County Council objects to this condition being included in the water right as it considers the filtration plant would have little effect on the nutrient levels in Lake Ellesmere and would be an unnecessary financial burden on ratepayers. The present sewerage system is overloaded and subject to malfunction and high maintenance costs. The Ellesmere County Council engineer, Mr R. J. Anderson, said that the inclusion of a filtration plant would mean ratepayers would have to pay $ll6 a year for using the sewerage system, a big increase from the present $63. The capital cost of the new system was estimated at $310,000 with an annual expense of $58,000. With the filtration plant the costs would increase 100 per cent to $615,000 and $117,000

respectively, Mr Anderson said. A consulting engineer, Mr D. R. Wilkie, said that the oxidation pond method was the most cost effective of all the sewerage systems studied. Mr Wilkie said that any reduction in the levels of nutrients by the filtration system required by the Regional Water Board would be so small as to be insignificant and not even detectable to the extent that any benefit would be imagined and, therefore, the system was unwarranted. The tribunal comprised Judge Skelton, Mr R. N. McLennan and Mrs N. J. Johnson. Mr G. H. Nation appeared for the Ellesmere County Council, Mr C. B. Atkinson, Q.C., for the North Canterbury Catchment and Regional Water Board and Mr M. D. de Goldi for the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society. The hearing will continue today.