Boil water notices for Methven might be a thing of the past, if the Ashburton District Council strikes it lucky and hits groundwater for an alternative source for its drinking water scheme.
Council is planning to spend up to $240,000 drilling an exploratory well to find water that will feed the scheme when its main source is dirty after heavy rainfall.
If water is found, another $1 million will need to be spent developing the bore. If no water is found, a new $4.5m water treatment facility might be back on the cards. The Methven scheme has about 1000 connections.
The Ashburton council is like other local bodies around the country facing big costs of bringing community drinking water schemes up to new standards imposed after the Havelock North water contamination event.
Methven sources its water from an infiltration gallery near the Ashburton River and after a big rainfall event, it often does not meet protozoal compliance, even after treatment. There have been seven boil water notices issued since June, 2017 - the longest for 10 days.
Deputy mayor Liz McMillan lives in Methven and is one of those tired of dealing with boil water notices.
The notices can happen at any time of the year, when the town is full of tourists, or not.
She spreads the word locally and then shares the boil water notice on Facebook; that is usually accompanied by a slew of negative comments.
A lot of time and effort goes into spreading the word, she said, and even then not everybody gets the message.
“It’s not just a couple of days that you have to boil the jug if you want a drink of water. Something needs to be done.’’
Cr Angus McKay asked if council had considered another intake from the Ashburton River at Pudding Hill, but staff said water taken there would have the same issues following a rainfall event.
Deep groundwater would not be similarly affected and could be used as bridging or emergency source until water from the main intake was compliant again.
Assets manager Andrew Guthrie said Methven’s existing treatment plant could not be improved to address the issue.
He said boil water notices might fulfil council’s current obligations to scheme users, but might not be acceptable to the new national water regulator being set up.
