The Cromwell waste water treatment upgrade project is to be expanded to include improved tanker septage receiving facilities.
Central Otago District Council councillors at last week's three waters committee meeting approved spending of about $136,000 to build a new facility for tanker septage, which is the waste material pumped from septic tank or other facilities.
The facility would be built as part of the larger Cromwell plant upgrade and was needed to cater for demand, council major projects infrastructure manager Simon Norton said.
The existing septage facility was a manhole on the outskirts of Cromwell on Richards Beach Rd, into which commercial operators pumped waste from tankers when parked partly on the road.
This presented a road safety issue, as well as health and safety issues from occasional spills, Mr Norton said.
It also meant a surge of waste for the nearby wastewater plant, with little or no dispersal, which affected the pond performance.
As well, although only two companies were registered to use the facility, it was thought others were using the site without authorisation or payment.
Material going into the manhole was not screened, which resulted in large material and rocks blocking the inflow pipes.
The receiving main at the manhole had recently been jet-cleaned to remove considerable quantities of heavy sediment, at a cost of $50,000, Mr Norton said.
''The whole situation is not ideal, and we need to bring some control to the situation.''
The proposed new facility will be built beside the campervan dump station on Richards Beach Rd.
