Water needs future proofed

Fonterra’s new $20 million water treatment plant in South Taranaki is capable of processing three times the amount of water used by the 12,000 people of Ha¯wera every day.

The grey painted plant, five kilometres south of Ha¯wera, was officially opened yesterday after being in operation since August 2016.

It was built on a bare paddock alongside Fonterra’s giant milk processing site at Whareroa.

The project was built in tandem with an $18 million overhaul of one of the sites three milk powder plants, at a combined cost of $38m.

Now in full operation it was capable of drawing 30 million litres of water a day (m/lt/day) from Tawhiti and Tangahoe Streams. During peak processing it would treat 28m/lt/day, roughly twice the amount of milk delivered for processing.

By comparison the Ha¯wera municipal water treatment plant used 12m/lt/day to provide clean water for residents and small industry in the township.

Project manager Adam Cope said the technology and filtration system in the treatment plant would improve the efficiency of the site’s processing plants, and increase on-site water storage by 50 per cent to 13 million litres using the existing reservoir.

Fonterra Lower North Island operations manager Tony MacLean said the new plant would provide sustainability for the massive Whareroa site.

‘‘It will cut down on the amount of highly quality treated water used in the cleaning processes and reduce our environmental footprint,’’ he said. A 500 metre pipeline connected the two sites to deliver potable water to the main site for processing.

Water would be recycled for washing tankers, and rinse plants before a high-temperature ‘Clean In Place’ procedure, necessary to meet food safety and food quality standards, is used.

Whareroa was first established by Kiwi Dairies in 1972 before the company was restructured as part of Fonterra in 2001. The site contributed 20 per cent of the company’s production in New Zealand with a wide range of dairy products, including whole milk, skim milk, and buttermilk powders, milk protein and whey protein concentrates.