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1. What caused the sewer network problem? Our wastewater network is made up of pipes, pumping stations, storage tanks, the Rosedale Wastewater Treatment Plant and effluent outfall. In many parts of North Shore City, the wastewater network is old and leaky. Over the years the network has had little or no maintenance. Where pipes are cracked and broken three problems occur: Infiltration – when stormwater flows into the sewage pipes following heavy rain and increases the volume of sewage to be treated. E.g. through leaky pipes, manholes, leaky private drains, or stormwater flowing directly into the wastewater network from our roofs and gully traps. Overflow – when infiltration places heavy loads on our pipes and pumping stations and causes sewage to overflow into streams and onto our beaches. Stormwater draining illegally into the sewage network contributes significantly to this problem. Exfiltration – when sewage leaks out of the network into the surrounding area, it occurs mainly during dry weather. This sewage may eventually find its way into stormwater and ends up once again on our beaches and in our waterways. 2. Why was the beach water quality allowed to get to the state it has? In many parts of North Shore City the network is old and leaky and has had little or no renewal over the years. Public expectations have changed over the years along with priorities. Forty years ago it was acceptable to discharge raw sewage into the sea. With our increasing knowledge of the environmental effects this is obviously no longer acceptable. The problem is not unique to North Shore City. Auckland City and other cities around New Zealand and worldwide are facing the same issue. We’re leading the way in New Zealand with Project CARE and drawing on international expertise from Europe, Britain, Asia and Australia. 3. Why did the council not have the funds to deal with the issue? Rates were not collected in the past to pay for renewing the system. Funds from the sale of airport shares were used to repay debt and to fund capital projects that would normally have been funded by loans. Developer levies are only for new developments and not for renewing the existing sewer network. 4. How can we be sure that political will won't see the money disappear into the general coffers to be spent on other projects? Unlike many other charges, wastewater charges are isolated from other funds. As we move into the network consents process it is expected that there will be conditions that must be fulfilled to give assurance of this. 5. How does the Rosedale outfall fit into all of this? The Rosedale ocean outfall currently discharges treated effluent 600m out to sea from Kennedy Park. The plan is to programme the new Rosedale outfall for 2009/2010 in order that Project CARE works that make a greater contribution to improving beach water quality are completed first. Pollutants from the outfall contribute only four per cent to the total beach water quality problem. In the meantime we’re improving the quality of discharge from the outfall pipe by building an Ultra-Violet treatment plant to disinfect the effluent and have added a diffuser to the pipe to improve the spread of the discharge. The Auckland Regional Council (ARC) also requires North Shore City Council to apply for resource consent for the discharge and through that process ARC can make sure that the discharge meets the highest environmental standards. 6. How will we know that the 'fix' is working? Everyone, council and the community needs to know the right decisions have been made and that the 'fix' is working. Council is using a range of measures to check on progress. We will be reporting on the following things:
7. Why will it take so long to see any real results? We have said all along that it will take some time to fix the problems. There are a number of reasons for this:
8. What are we going to see being done in our area? There is a range of works already under way to address the problems with the city's wastewater network. These will happen according to a carefully prioritised programme. We look at the capacity of the whole system and assess that works in a certain area will have the greatest impact on the whole system. Updates on projects around the city will appear on our website and in your community newspaper. The council may also approach you if the project is likely to effect you directly. 9. How do we know we have the right people on the job? We are fortunate to be able to pull together such a well-qualified team for Project CARE. There is only a small pool worldwide to draw from, as modern wastewater and stormwater technology is an evolving field. The Team's approach has been to carefully identify problems and possible solutions, consider all the factors, consult with the community and then choose the best option. Some of those choices are works that are already underway and others will happen over a longer timeframe. The team comprises the following people:
In addition to our in-house experts we are working closely with Australian Water Technologies to benefit from their experience upgrading the sewer network in Sydney. Meritec and Sinclair Knight Merz are also lending their experience to the project. The project has also been reviewed by European expert Karl Ivor who said that Project CARE is a "well executed project, using state of the art technology in a professional manner, managed by highly motivated and competent people, with second-to-none public participation." 10. Why aren't we looking at alternative technologies? We have looked at alternative technologies and will continue to do so. Project CARE has made reducing the sewage overflows and beach water quality the highest priority. This means fixing and upgrading the existing pipes is the immediate priority. All wastewater systems, traditional and alternative, have their limitations. Options such as water conservation, composting toilets, satellite sewage treatment plants and rainwater harvesting are potentially viable but need considerably more research and debate as part of the city's long term planning for wastewater management. Long term planning allows a far more holistic view of the city's wastewater treatment systems. As with all options, the council along with the community must consider factors such as cost and resident responsibility as well as the technical suitability of such methods. 11. How do we know that you will look after this new system properly? The Local Government Act ensures that mechanisms are in place, such as depreciation to fund maintenance and renewal of the system. In addition Audit NZ audits the asset management plans to ensure they are sound, and consents granted under the Resource Management Act further impose a certain performance levels. 12. Why do the signs go up? A beach warning sign is our way of telling you that we're aware that something has gone wrong with the sewer network which may have had an effect on local beach water quality, and that we are looking into it. Most often it is because a pumping station or manhole has overflowed following heavy rain. Once we know that something has gone wrong we put up a sign immediately and notify the community through the local media that there may be a health risk to swimmers. We arrange for water samples to be taken from the affected beaches. The water sample is tested to see whether the quality of the water falls within the guidelines set by the Ministry of Health. It takes 24 hours before the results are available. Most of the time the water quality is within the recommended guidelines and the signs come down within the day. In every case the sign will have been up for the minimum time of 24 hours (longer if test results are unavailable for some reason). Further tests will be made every day until water quality is within the recommended guidelines. 13. What is being monitored? Twenty-six beaches are tested every week of the year throughout the city as part of the SAFESWIM programme. We also test when we are aware that something has gone wrong in the sewer network. It takes 24 hours before the results are available. Most of the time the water quality is within the recommended guidelines and the signs come down within the day. If not the signs stay up until beach water quality improves. North Shore City does more monitoring than any other city in the country. We are currently working with the Ministry for the Environment on a nation-wide programme that will see a standardised monitoring programme undertaken by all councils. 14. What about all this money spent on consultants? Cutting costs and reducing overheads is a priority for any organisation and council is no different. Having a person on staff incurs a raft of expenses over and above their salary. These overheads include things such as their computer, training, ACC. One of the ways to keep our overheads down is to carefully choose the staff we need to do the job. However, some tasks require specialist skills that we only need for a short amount of time. Rather than have a person on staff it is more efficient to employ those specialist skills on a short-term basis. 15. What about the inner harbour? As you can see improvements are being made across the whole city and works in one area can equate to improvements in other areas e.g. storage can provide both local and widespread benefits. 16. Where we are now? Project CARE has been divided up into four phases: Phase 1 Assessment of
available information and scoping of the total project Phase 2 Investigation of
the performance of the existing wastewater and stormwater systems and
the impact on the receiving waters. Within this phase tools (mainly
hydraulic computer models) were developed to enable option analyses in
subsequent stages. Phase 3
Phase 4 Generation of the
Wastewater Network Strategic Improvement programme (WNSIP). The main objective of phase 4 is to carry out detailed planning to identify works required to achieve the design target of no more that two overflow events per annum in 2020: the Wastewater Network Strategic Improvement Programme (WNSIP). Major projects The following projects are all part of the Wastewater Network Strategic Improvement Programme, that will be completed at a cost of $210 million by 2020:
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Water
introduction