Councils scramble to meet deadlines

Councils and government departments are racing to meet drinking water standard deadlines after a cryptosporidium outbreak in Queenstown last year.

Following the outbreak water regulator Taumata Arowai put 27 councils on notice to have a plan and funds locked in to put protozoa treatment barriers on drinking water supplies by June.

It identified 84 drinking water supplies affecting 310,000 people that needed to be upgraded. The majority were in the South Island with the largest group in Christchurch where almost 170,000 people were estimated to be affected.

In December, it also put council and government supplies without bacterial barriers and/or residual disinfection on notice to upgrade their supplies.

Bacterial barriers include ultraviolet light, ozone, and chlorine and protect against bacteria such as campylobacter, as was experienced in Hastings in 2016, and viruses such as norovirus.

A Taumata Arowai spokesperson said there had been 23 applications for exemptions – including Christchurch, which was one of five to have been declined. Two were granted and nine withdrawn. The remainder were in progress.

Despite being declined an exemption Christchurch City Council three waters head Brent Smith said he expected the council would comply without having to install protozoa treatment barriers due to the depth of the water source.

A Taumata Arowai spokesperson confirmed it was undertaking work to further understand the Christchurch bores.

Smith said some smaller supplies were being closed and other upgrades were underway. All supplies would be compliant by December 2025, he expected.

Since the outbreak the Queenstown Lakes District Council had installed protozoa barriers at all of its surface water intakes, including Two Mile, where cryptosporidium entered the water in 2023, and Wānaka supplies.

The remaining sites at Luggate, Glenorchy, Corbridge and Wānaka Airport would be completed this year. The total estimated cost for the work was $11 million.

The Central Otago District Council is spending $23m to upgrade its Cromwell supply and was working on options for protozoa barriers at Patearoa and Ranfurly.

Grey District Council operations manager Aaron Haymes said the council would meet its requirements to upgrade the Greymouth supply by disconnecting a now redundant bore. Many other councils had small and rural sites identified as requiring upgrades.

The Tasman District Council has five non-compliant water sources, the largest being the Motueka bore, which services 3257 people, and it would be made redundant.

Gore District Council 3 Waters Asset Manager Matt Bayliss said its Hilbre Ave water treatment plant, which was responsible for about one-third of Gore’s drinking water, did not meet standards. By the end of June 2025 all water would be treated at the East Gore plant, at a cost of $7.7m.

In Marlborough the Riverlands, Havelock and Awatere Rural water supplies are being upgraded over the next two years at a total cost of about $27m.

In the Hurunui district nine supplies have been upgraded and eight more were due for completion by the end of 2024, costing $24m.

A decision had yet to be made on the Balmoral rural supply, which served 273 people.

The Waitaki District Council was told to upgrade eight supplies affecting about 1350 people.

The Omarama supply upgrade was completed in December, at a cost of more than $4m, and seven other supplies are on boil water notices.

The Waimate District Council was applying for an extension for three of the four rural sites identified.

The Hook Waituna supply – serving 1350 people – was being upgraded at a cost of about $9m.

The Buller District Council had supplies at Little Whanganui, Mokihinui and Waimangaroa (total 550 people affected) identified and was working with Taumata Arowai to explore alternatives.

A Taupō District Council spokesperson said of the 11 supplies providing drinking water to more than 8000 people, a protozoa barrier was installed at one, six more were on track to be complete within taumata Arowai deadlines with another four would be complete in 2025. The total estimated cost was more than $50m.

Auckland Council was required to install an upgraded system at Tāwharanui Regional Park and that went live on November 30, costing $13,300.

Several primary schools that sourced drinking water from groundwater were identified as requiring upgrades and Ministry of Education property head Sam Fowler said they would all be compliant by the end of 2024.

They are Whangaehu School, Grovetown School, Tua Marina School, Hāwea Flat School and Waitotara School.

The Department of Conservation was required to upgrade drinking water supplies at 38 parks, camp sites, visitor centres and staff accommodation facilities it manages.

Of those 18 did not have a protozoa barrier and the department was considering applying for an exemption.

Boiled water notices were in place at huts, camp sites and visitor sites.

The New Zealand Defence Force was upgrading house and barrack water supplies at the Ardmore training area and expected the $175,000 work to be completed in March.

The Taumata Arowai spokesperson said the regulator was engaging with suppliers to ensure risks are appropriately managed and to help them identify compliance pathways appropriate to the scale, complexity, and risk of each supply.