Sanity not sewage overflows

Friends of Banks Peninsula is a community organisation working to protect the local environment since 1990.

Our current focus in on the Council's proposed new Akaroa Wastewater system. We want to see a system that can:

• withstand the impacts of climate change including more frequent and intense storms;

• avoid raw and treated wastewater overflows and nutrient and biological pollution;

• fixes the sewer pipe network so that infiltration and leakage is minimised;

• treats the wastewater to the highest possible standard to facilitate re-use in a town that suffers chronic summer water shortages;

• is affordable for the Council to build, operate and maintain properly.

In our view, the land based irrigation system currently proposed by the Council won't achieve any of these goals. Instead $100 million is to be invested on a system that its own consultants have already identified will overflow both raw and treated wastewater every wet winter because the sewer pipes in Akaroa leak so badly that most of the wastewater is storm water infiltration. Failing to fix the pipes means the system has to be much bigger and more expensive than if it was just dealing with human sewage, and means there is no headroom for expansion. It leaves Akaroa increasingly vulnerable to extreme storms and sea level rise and the problem of broken pipes is left for the future. There is no Plan B should this experimental system experience unforeseen issues, such as slips or fire taking out irrigation areas.