Can We Dump Raw Shit Into Your River for the Next 25 Years?
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O, and all sewage is within property bounds (septic tanks/Oasis-type sytems.)
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Last - but pertinent comment - where do youy think all of Greymouth's
'waste' goes?
And why no locals are very keen on Grey River 'bait? -
Hi Islander - I am scratching my head trying to work out where the Big O might be but it sounds like an independent sort of place.
I haven't lived in NZ for over 5 years, so I am not that up to speed, but when I left all councils seemed to do things differently when it came to setting discharge consents and charging for the services.
I would agree on the privatisation of water. There should never be an excuse for that happening in NZ. It seems that, before water is privatised in a country, the infrastructure gets neglected for a long time. Then the government will say we can't possibly afford to bring this up to scratch we will have to let private finance pay for it (not that I think this is an excuse). I guess the UK and Argentina are examples of this.
However, despite my views on privatisation, I have worked with UK Water Companies for several years and I am yet to bump into the antichrist. They are doing a pretty good job of achieving upgrade targets. If they don’t they get fined.
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here in Dunedin where we've basically just pumped everything out to sea - meaning that the main swimming beaches regularly get closed - we've 'solved' the problem, at great cost, by basically building a longer pipe.
This month they're actually going to start to 'treat' the sewage by dumping some chlorine in the pipe - some years for now (not yet budgeted for, and competing with the stupid stadium for financing), is actual treatment - sometime next decade
Meanwhile, despo\ite the longer pipe, the surfees are arguing about what the brown sludge they are swimming in is ....
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. . . we've 'solved' the problem, at great cost, by basically building a longer pipe.
Which is exactly what Chch has recently done, which makes the supposed need to pollute the Avon & Heathcote all the weirder.
Meanwhile, despite the longer pipe, the surfees are arguing about what the brown sludge they are swimming in is ....
The Dunedin equivalent of the legendary Bondi cigars, no doubt.
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and probably 'Coney Island white fish' too ....
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which makes the supposed need to pollute the Avon & Heathcote all the weirder
Joe, I think they're talking about peak overflows when mixed stormwater and sewage systems get hit by big rainfalls. Big pipe only works for the rest of the time.
Same as Auckland region, though at least we treat ours first. The beaches of the Eastern Bays can verify that doesn't apply when the overflow systems kick in after a downpour. C&R dominated councils have knowingly under-invested in separation work for half a century, offloading the cost onto their children to keep today's rates bills lower for them and their wealthy constitutents. Many of whom ironically live near those beaches, which gives you a sense of their priorities or their lack of ability to genuinely influence their representatives. Don't even start on how the Royal Commission will affect that.
Sewage failure is sadly one of those things that makes our "clean green" claims a lie all around the country - ask surfies in Dunedin as noted and other spots like Gisborne. Solving the problem requires an inter-generational acceptance of long-term investment rather than a fashionably selfish get-rich-now attitude. It will be most interesting to see if privatising water treatment is able to provide any part of the answer. Thanks for the conversation, David.
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If there are no required minimum treatment standards then sewage treatment is something that is subject to political will and can easily be put in the too expensive basket.
Regulation and privatisation has worked in the UK to increase treatment standards but paying around £330 a year in water bills so a private company can cream off some profits is hard to take. Best to go just for some regulation I think.
Although a supporter of the Green party I could never agree with their stance on Metro Water (Auckland City’s council owned business unit). Rather than a step towards privatisation I thought it was preventing it by catching up on upgrading neglected infrastructure by running it (more) separately to other council activities. -
OK, having a bypass facility on a wastewater treatment plant is a pretty normal design feature, because while untreated sewerage going into waterways is a Bad Thing, blocking up the biological processes of the plant, or leaving wastewater in a holding tank so long it goes toxic are also Bad Things, of greater magnitude. Having said that, how often the bypass facility is needed is a big deal. From Christchurch CC's website, they have a programme to reduce rainwater infiltration into their wastewater network, which will help; but you could ask them to consider treating the bypass line with UV to kill bugs before they get into the waterways; or doing their infiltration upgrades faster; and/or upgrading their treatment plant to take a greater capacity.
The resource consent process isn't the end, either. People can always write into the Council about things they care about, or contact their ward councillors directly, or respond to specific consultation exercises. I strongly recommend that people make submissions about this for the Draft Long Term Plan (LTCCP) consultation, which closes on 16 April. (http://www.ccc.govt.nz/HaveYourSay/ConsultationView.aspx?ConsultId=611)
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Rosie, Big O is in South Westland. It is not a large settlement. We also refer to it as "The Navel of the Universe" because, as a community, we have a well-developed sense of our importance and aspire to be lint.
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Here in Dunedin we are discharging 'treated' sewerage through a long pipe for which the resource consent runs out in 2012. Instead of planning for the problem the DCC is applying for the water quality criteria to be downgraded. If you can't meet the bar, then lower it.
Swimming in clean water has been lauded as a privilege that comes rarely, like a day sunny enough to go to the beach. However, in a few years there won't be any surfers in the water because they will all be watching the Rugby World Cup final at Dunedin's new stadium, or did I read that wrong? -
I think we'd rather have clean sewerage than a new stadium (we already have a perfectly good Carisbrook we've been shoveling money into for years, what we need is a good team, not a good stadium)
so don't forget public meeting against the stadium in the town hall tonight (Sun) 7pm
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the surfees are arguing about what the brown sludge they are swimming in is ....
As Spike Milligan once put it, are they actually swimming in the sea or just going through the motions?
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