"Our water hasn't killed anyone, but it has buggered up a few kettles. It'll cost an extra $420 [a year], mostly to get that lime out, if that's what people want, " Vincent Community Board member Martin McPherson said at the board's meeting on Monday.
Council water services manager Russell Bond told the board government subsidies were available to help upgrade small rural water schemes but only two of the nine water supplies within Central Otago that need to be upgraded met the criteria. Alexandra, Clyde and Omakau supplies are within the Vincent ward.
To be eligible for the drinking water subsidy, communities must have a deprivation index of seven or greater. The index is calculated using census data and other information on the make-up of a community, including school decile numbers, information from Housing New Zealand and the Ministry of Social Development.
Roxburgh and Lake Roxburgh met the criteria, but Mr Bond believed the board could ask for the deprivation index for Omakau to be reconsidered. The surrounding farmland was sometimes included within the area for schemes and that skewed the deprivation index results, he said.
The cost of upgrading the Alexandra water supply was just over $8 million. About a quarter of that cost related to meeting the drinking water standards and the rest was to deal with the water's "hardness" - to alleviate the problem with lime in the supply.
If a loan was raised to fund the project, based on a 10-year loan period, an improved water supply would cost Alexandra residents an extra $420 a year.
Upgrading the Clyde supply ($350,000) would add $90 a year to Clyde ratepayers' bills and improving the Omakau supply ($571,000) would add an extra $414 a year to residents' rates.
"Do Alexandra ratepayers want to spend that much to remove the hardness from the water?" Mr McPherson said.
"This legislation coming out of Wellington is a one-size-fits-all solution but the message we have to try and put through to Wellington is that we can't afford this."
Mr Bond said to meet its legal obligation, the board had to take all practicable steps to meet the required standards. The council had been told if it complying with the standards was too expensive, it still needed to prepare a water safety plan.
