Queenstown Lakes District Council project manager Ken Gousmett told Wanaka Community Board members a new bore testing system, involving drilling into aquifers beneath the Pembroke Park lakefront reserve, was expected to provide an uncontaminated water source.
Many Wanaka residents, particularly those living in older houses, have found their water supplies affected by algae, which clog filters and affect water pressure, during the past 12 months.
Mr Gousmett said council contractors were still no closer to solving the mystery of the algae's origin.
The QLDC has contracted engineering consultant MWH to investigate the algae and report on the implications of their continued presence in Lake Wanaka.
If the algae were projected to be a future problem for sourcing Wanaka's water supplies, alternative intakes for the town's supply would have to be addressed, Mr Gousmett said.
It was hoped the water bore testing at Pembroke Park would present one possible solution, he said.
The aquifers beneath Pembroke Park were expected to provide a cleaner source of water, with algal contamination naturally filtered by gravel.
Wanaka-based QLDC project manager Rob Darby said a maintenance programme would be carried out at the council's water intake pumping station at Bremner Bay.
A review of computer modelling systems for the pumping station had produced a result which satisfied a "once in 20-year" storm capacity requirement, he said.
This removed a need to conduct an overhaul of the facility, although a $350,000 consultants' bill, previously incurred as part of an earlier review, had added a "regrettable" cost to the project, he told board members.
