Foxton water may soon run clear

Foxton residents could soon quench their thirst with clean water if plans to create 400-metre-deep bores go ahead.

Foxton Community Board members have discussed several options to make the water run clear after decades of brown water.

One option was to make bores that are 200m deeper than current ones.

Another option was to provide drinking water stations, at the beach and town centre, where people can fill containers with clear water.

Resident Deyna Halidone said having the option to stock up on clean water would be well utilised by the residents who are sick of having brown water.

Halidone said she restricted her water intake because it tasted like dirt.

‘‘I’ve only drunk the tap water a couple of times out of desperation.’’

After a stint in Te Awamutu, Halidone moved back to Foxton two years ago only to find that the water had not improved.

‘‘When I lived in Te Awamutu the water was sparkling. It was just beautiful,’’ Halidone said.

Halidone spends about $20 per week on water bottles as well as boiling water to make it more drinkable.

Each week when the pipes are flushed it makes the water brown and people know not to wash their whites on the weekends, she said.

A build-up of manganese in the main water pipes has been dissolving into the water, causing discolouration.

The water also has a high ammonia content, requiring a higher level of treatment and higher dose of chlorine to disinfect, compared to other water supplies.

In a statement, Horowhenua District Council water and waste services manager Paul Gaydon said the proposed 400m-deep bores would reach different aquifers to the existing bores.

‘‘At the moment we’re taking water of lower quality and then having to do a higher level of treatment to make it acceptable,’’ Gaydon said.

Further testing will be carried out to investigate the viability of 400m-deep bores and findings will be reported back the Foxton Community Board early 2017.

Another option discussed was ozone treatment which would cost about $750,000 and would require ongoing operating costs, Gaydon said.

‘‘Ozone is an extremely strong oxidant that will remove both ammonia and quickly oxidise the organics and manganese,’’ he said.

The ozone treatment option would not be considered further, but the water stations and deeper bores options were being investigated, Gaydon said.