Condition of outfall will date renewal

Press, 30 June 1983, Page 9

Condition of outfall will date renewal

Parliamentary reporter If engineering studies confirm claims that the effluent outfall has a highly suspect future, the Government might have to bring forwards it replacement plans, said the Deputy Secretary of Energy, Mr W. J. Falconer, yesterday. The Taranaki Catchment Commission claimed last week, before a special select committee on the discharge of Motunui synthetic fuels effluent, that the pipe could suffer serious damage or collapse completely within the next few years. Advance replacement plans would please Te Atiawa Maoris who want the Government to relinquish the Motunui water right Early replacement or improvement of the Waitara outfall would allow the Government to let go the Motunui water right, which it has said it needs to keep the synthetic fuel plant loan pontracts for $1.7 billion The

a secure water right at all times. The Government has set up a special task force, which may take three years to report on regional outfall needs and gain a water right for a new outfall at Waitara. But the catchment commission told the select committee that the future of the existing pipe was “highly suspect,” and that it could collapse completely in the next few years. Simple repairs could take up to six months to complete, during which time the Synfuels plant might have to close, at losses of millions of dollars every week. Mr Falconer said it was easy for the commission to make that assertion but that “no-one had sufficient engineering knowledge to make that judgment yet.”' ' However, he admitted that the Government was worried. The exact state of repair of the pipe would only become known Mr the course of tests by thbftask

force, and “if it’s due for replacement now, it is due now,” Mr Falconer said. Responsibility for upkeep and maintenance of the pipe was the Waitara Borough Council’s however, and the Government would not want to spend money improving an existing pipe when it planned a new one soon. However, if the pipe was shown to need major repair urgently, the Government would have to make the decision there and then as to whether to improve or replace it, Mr Falconer said. He dismissed claims that Synfuels effluent would overload the pipe and force emergency spillage from the pumps into the Waitara River.

The plant would take up spare capacity in the existing pipe, and its effluent would join the pipe downstream of the pumps, he said. The pumps controlled the capacity of the pipes upstream.