Staff sure Raetihi water supply problems fixed

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 8, Issue 371, 29 January 1991, Page 1

Staff sure Raetihi water supply problems fixed

Following equipment faults and mishaps the Raetihi Water supply system should now be "AOK", according to Ruapehu District Council staff. The system has been disrupted by a series of faults and mishaps since early in the new year when staff worked at cleaning out the settling ponds at Tohunga Road, near the intake of the system, said Mayor Garrick Workman. At that stage Raetihi users were warned that the water may be turned off as a result of the work, but as it turned out there was no need to shut it off. However, on Saturday 19 January a water main in Seddon Street burst, resulting in the water being off for most of Sunday without warning, while staff located the fault and replaced the pipe. Mayor Workman said on Wednesday night last week staff decided to drain off stagnant water from the settling ponds while water use was low. But one of the valves to the reservoir malfunctioned which led to the reservoir water syphoning backwards, draining the tank.

Mayor Workman said at about 8.30am Thursday the reservoir was found to be virtually empty. He said staff worked to bypass the reservoir and take water from the ponds, inject it with chlorine and pump it directly into the mains. He said at that stage people may have noticed a strong chlorine taste in the water. While it was empty area manager Don Sattler decided to clean out the reservoir of several years' build up of silt, said Mayor Workman. Staff said on Monday that the reservoir had been cleaned out on Thursday and Friday, the system was flushed out again on Saturday and that the system should now be running smoothly. Mayor Workman said as a result of the problems a flushing system for the reservoir would be looked at. He said staff had to clean out the reservoir by hand, passing buckets through an opening in the top of the reservoir, which was a long and laborious process.