Water restrictions imposed in Picton

For the first time in nearly two decades Picton has been put on a drought-related water alert, restricting residents from watering their gardens and lawns.

Drought-induced water restrictions haven’t been seen in the town since the extreme droughts of 2000 and 2001, however an upgrade to a water treatment plant did see similar restrictions last year.

Low water levels in the Essons Valley Dam and a high demand for water during the hot season triggered the restrictions.

The port town’s proud lawnowners can only water on odd or even calendar days, depending on their street number.

The Speeds Road wells water treatment upgrade, the reason for Picton’s water restrictions last year, was completed this year.

Marlborough District Council operations and maintenance engineer Stephen Rooney said Picton’s water use currently exceeded what Speeds Road wells could supply, so the town relied on the Essons Valley Dam which was susceptible to drought conditions.

Picton resident Lynne Neilson said they were coping ‘‘fine’’ with the water shortage, watering on allocated days and late at night, when there wasn’t as much pressure on the supply.

She said she had been made aware of the water restrictions via the Picton Resource Centre but wasn’t sure if other people in Picton had got the message.

‘‘Rain would be good, although soon we’ll be wishing it was hot again.

‘‘We work so hard for all these plants and they go in such a short amount of time. We’re lucky, really, when you look at what’s going on over in Nelson,’’ she said.

A fire that started in Pigeon Valley, near Wakefield, southwest of Nelson, has been burning for more than a week.

The Essons Valley dam’s extra capacity covered the town’s summer consumption. However, the dam couldn’t be run 24/7 due to silt and algal blockages requiring the pumps to be cleared, Rooney said.

Should the last few months of low rainfall continue, the ‘‘next level’’ of water restrictions could apply, limiting irrigation to every other day.

Rooney said if Picton residents limited their irrigation, they would be able to meet their water requirements solely from the Speed Road wells.

Renwick is currently on voluntary water restrictions.

‘‘They’re a smaller community and have great involvement,’’ Rooney said.

‘‘The community can see what impact their usage has on the water level.’’

Last week, council reduced the flow and asked Renwick residents to decrease their use by 15 to 20 per cent.

‘‘Over that weekend, they reduced their usage from 65 to 48 litres per second, a 20 per cent decrease,’’ Rooney said.

However, he said that without rainfall, there may yet be further requests to reduce use.

‘‘If you manage this, we won’t have to put on formal restrictions,’’ he said.

Rooney said Renwick residents had managed to selfpolice their water usage successfully for the last four years.

‘‘In a bigger community, it’s much harder to get the message out.’’

Fulton Hogan will begin construction on Renwick’s new water reservoir in the next few weeks. The $10.1 million project will triple the small rural town’s water supply and includes a water treatment plant.