It has been a busy year as we continue to work on projects that will ensure water supply, wastewater and stormwater systems meet the needs of our growing city while protecting our unique environment.

There’s still a huge amount of work to do to ensure essential water services meet performance requirements and keep pace with demand, and we are committed to achieving this. Here are some highlights of what has been achieved in 2005.

Wastewater

Project CARE is our 20-year programme to reduce wet weather sewage overflow events and improve beach and stream water quality. While our wastewater storage tanks have made a huge impact preventing up to 36 wet weather overflows this year, some other Project CARE highlights include:

The completion of the new Beach Haven trunk sewer including the installation of a 40m long pipe bridge spanning the Kahika Stream. The new sewer pipe is 650mm in diameter, 220mm bigger than the old pipe and better able to cope with wet weather, reducing the number of sewage overflows.

We are nearing completion of the Browns Bay large storage sewer. During this project we used underground tunnelling technology, which helped keep disruption to a minimum as we installed the 2.1m diameter pipes under Anzac Rd and Beach Front Lane.

Repairs were made to the main trunk sewer along the foreshore between Mairangi Bay and Campbells Bay ensuring the pipeline is structurally sound and protected against damage from waves.

Project Rosedale is the upgrading of the Rosedale Wastewater Treatment Plant to improve efficiency and capacity. Recently we started installing technology at the plant to more efficiently treat sludge, which will produce power and disposal cost savings of about $400,000 a year.

We have also undertaken extensive planning and preparations for the proposed 5.4km, $94m treated effluent outfall for the Rosedale Wastewater Treatment Plant. This included drilling 10 metre deep boreholes to collect seabed samples in Rangitoto Channel.

Stormwater

The stormwater ponds at Unsworth Heights and Stredwick Dr were cleared of silt, weeds and overgrown vegetation. The treatment efficiency of the ponds has now been restored to their designed levels, improving stormwater quality before it flows to the sea.

A dry pond that only holds water in extreme storm events was installed in Albany. The pond has the ability to hold up to 15,000m3 of stormwater before releasing it back into Lucas Creek over a 12-hour period, helping prevent flooding and erosion.

We have continued our programme of fencing open drains on public property to improve community safety. One such fence was installed alongside the potentially dangerous Wairau Creek stormwater channel in Glenfield. The fence is 1.3m high and 900m long bringing the length of all safety fences being installed in 2005 to over 1,000 metres.

We have continued to make progress on the development of our stormwater management plans including assessments of flood risk and the potential damage caused by stormwater, identification of flood plains, an intensive investigation of 26 of the city’s streams to look at the impacts of pollution and water flows, and how to manage and control contaminants and sediment.

Water Supply

The quality of the drinking water we supply North Shore City households and businesses continues to be of the highest standard with an ‘a’ grading received from theMinistry of Health.

The Environment

The Great Drain Game continues to be a hit in schools and at events providing children and adults with a hands-on opportunity to learn about water, drains, pollution and where it ends up. This year the Great Drain Game has visited 17 schools and events.

Through our Safeswim programme, we continue to spread the word about beach water quality, how you can help improve it, how to prevent pollution reaching our waterways and how to stay safe. Water quality results are available at any time by calling 0800 SAFESWIM (0800 72 33 79).

With the Auckland Regional Council, 120 Kauri Park Primary School students, scientists and experts in freshwater fish and insects, we investigated the Kahika Stream in Birkdale and found native Kokopu, red bullies and eels living there. The students now regularly monitor the stream as part of Wai Care to help protect it from pollution.