Gerard McCombie
A leak in one of Dunedin's main water supply pipelines
has been repaired and the pipeline recommissioned, but the
city's residents are still being urged to restrict water use
because there is not much to spare.
A crack in the Deep Stream pipeline near Mt Gowrie, where the
steel pipe meets the concrete pipe, was repaired on Tuesday
and the line recommissioned on Tuesday night, Dunedin City
Council water production manager Gerard McCombie said.
The city's other main supply line, the Deep Creek pipeline
was still shut while an intake was upgraded, but was expected
to be operational again tomorrow, although it was to be
closed again next Tuesday for a further three days for more
maintenance.
That, plus other pressures on the supply, including low river
flows from some rivers, meant the council was asking
residents to voluntarily cut use, Mr McCombie said yesterday.
A call earlier this week for people to put off watering their
gardens for a few days got a good response, with a 11%
reduction in demand.
The daily demand yesterday was 46,000cu m, compared with a
57,000cu m supply capacity.
The Mt Grand reservoir, which can hold 10 days' supply for
the city, was at 90% capacity yesterday.
While there were no serious concerns about supply yet, the
pipe issues and some of the supplying rivers being quite low
at the moment meant he still had a word of caution and a
request for people to limit non-essential water use in the
meantime.
''What people have to realise is Dunedin works off a
run-of-river supply so does not have a lot of storage, like
Sydney, which has several years' storage, or Auckland which
has a year's storage or something - so managing demand is
key.''
- debbie.porteous@odt.co.nz
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