Quake effects Putaruru’s water
Putaruru’s water supply was shaken and stirred by the November 14 ‘Kaikoura’ earthquakes.
Almost a year on from the 7.8 magnitude quake, the water supply servicing half of Putaruru’s homes continues to feel the effects, with an increase in pumice sediment being trapped.
The Waihou water supply services about 870 homes in Putaruru, and water managers are having to deal with an increase in coarse pumice material being sucked into the system.
There has been no impact on water quality for consumers but the South Waikato District Council is forking out thousands of dollars to replace the system’s course metal and micro filters more regularly.
Group assets manager Ted Anderson said the pumice was possibly wearing out the main pumps as well.
‘‘The Kaikoura earthquake has somehow disturbed the sediment. You look at the water and it is still beautiful and pristine but there is quite a bit of sediment,’’ he said.
Anderson said there was no telling how long the sediment would continue to have an impact.
‘‘It is continuing to taper away and is far better than it was but whether it gets back to what it was before is unknown as there is still a significant amount,’’ he said.
Communications manager Kerry Fabrie said while pumice has always been present it is the quantity being seen since the earthquake which is causing concern.
‘‘The current filters cost around $2500 each to change out. We used to change filters four times a year but this has increased to just over monthly,’’ she said.
‘‘We are monitoring the situation and could install a coarse filter before the pump. We have not as yet investigated the additional filter before the pump so cost of that is unknown.’’
Fabrie said there was no need for consumers to worry.
‘‘There is no concern at all, the filters trap down to one micron as they always have,’’ she said.
‘‘The only thing that has changed is the quantity of material being caught. There is no impact on the actual water delivered to homes.’’
Anderson said he was confident his team would be able to get on top of the issue. Truancy We are working with schools and truancy groups in order to get kids back to school.
We certainly appreciate when people call us when they see kids wandering around. Under the Education Act we uplift these kids and take them back to school.
The reason behind why we need to keep them in school is not just about learning, it also teaches them social skills as well which keeps them out of trouble.
If you are a parent struggling to get your kids to attend school come and see us and we can have a chat to see what we can work out. Family harm We had 20 incidents this week which is getting up there. Two of these resulted in arrests for making threats.
It is alcohol and other intoxicating substances that are leading to the majority of these. Burglaries We had five burglaries for the week which was not good.
Mainly lawnmowers, chainsaws and things like that have been targeted.
Many of these are taking place during the day and I’d suggest people are probably seeing things that look out of place. We really need people to call us to let us know if they do.
If you see someone walking down the street with a lawnmower it doesn’t hurt to call us so we can check it out.
*Senior Sergeant Jason Henderson