Failure of pumps caused resort water shortage

Design defects caused the failure of two water pumps at the Two Mile pump station at Fernhill in February, leaving Queenstown short of water for 24 hours.

When the pumps failed, the reservoir level dropped.

Repairing the pumps cost $100,000.

Queenstown Lakes District Council Three Waters manager Gerry Essenberg said contractor United Water had compiled a report into the failure. He said the report could not be released publicly until it was complete. However, he identified "several issues", some of which were linked to the station's construction.

The report had also identified "issues on the day", including the fact a contractor failed to respond to an alarm.

"The pumps failing didn't set off an alarm and the low reservoir alarm that did go off was thought by the contractor to be set off by a different fault than the one that occurred," he said.

It was 11 hours before it was realised both pumps had failed, he said. The result was a delay in fixing the pumps and the reservoir level dropping lower than it should have.

However, contractors could not have prevented the failure because of how the pumps were constructed 10 years ago.

The council had improved its systems since the issues were highlighted.

 

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