NEW PUMPING STATION

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28263, 29 April 1957, Page 10

NEW PUMPING STATION

Official Opening At Pages Road

Although the Christchurch Drainage Board’s new pumping station in Pages road had cost £177,000 —and ratepayers would meet the cost—there was the consolation that as far as could reasonably be fofeseen no reconstruction would be required for more than half a century, said the chairman of the board (Mr H. P. Smith) at the official opening of the station on Saturday. “What remains to be done is for this and future boards to press on, letting nothing deter them, with the reticulation which will bring this necessity to the many who anxiously await it,” Mr Smith said. The flow of sewage had increased from a million gallons a day in 1882 to three and a quarter million in 1907, eight and a half million in 1932, and 12.9 million gallons a day in 1957. The new treatment works, which the board must commence in the next 12 months, were designed, not for the present needs of 12.9 million gallons a day, but for 22 million gallons a day initially with provision for expansion to an expected capacity of 33 million gallons a day by the end of the centuryLong- View in Planning

“The board’s whole scheme will cater for a future population of at least 500,000 people, with provision for enlargement if necessary,” said Mr Smith. “So it can fairly be said that the board has taken a long view in its planning.” Mr Smith said Christchurch was an early pioneer in modern sewerage systems. The Tuam street pumping station had been located as far east as the methods of sewer construction in 1860 would permit, and the board would have had to retain it had it not pioneered the introduction of dewatering equipment to New Zealand.

“This equipment has made possible the extension of the main southern sewer along Worcester street and Woodham road to this new site 8000 ft nearer the sewage farm,” he said. “It has also enabled this one station to be built on a site where it will serve both the southern and northern relief sewers.” There was also provision for another northern and another southern relief sewer should they prove necessary. Representatives of local bodies and other organisations, who attended the opening, were invited to inspect the building, and the two standby 800 h.p. diesel engines, each driving a 540-kilo-watt alternator, were demonstrated.