NORTH SHORE WATER

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 263, 27 January 1928, Page 12

NORTH SHORE WATER

WAITAKERES INSPECTED FUTURE SUPPLIES The possibilities of the Auckland City Council’s Waitakere dam as a source of water supply for the North Shore were investigated yesterday by members of the four borough councils of the marine suburbs. fJiHE inspection was organised by the North Shore Water Board. Mi 1 . O. N. Campbell, Commissioner of Crown Lands, who is the Government representative on the Water Board, accompanied the party, which was met by Mr. J. A. C. Allum, chairman of the city’s Water Committee, Mr. W. E. Bush, city engineer, and Mr. G. Carr, city waterworks superintendent; Mr. A. Harris, M.P., was also present. The filtration plant at Waitakere was first inspected, the filtration and chlorination processes being demonstrated. Mr. Bush explained that by lifting the dam 16ft 6in and building a retaining wall across a gap in the valley side he would be able to increase the storage capacity to 450,000,000 gallons. MAGNITUDE OF PLANS Mr. E. Aldridge, Mayor of Devonport, thanked the City Council for its hospitality and expressed surprise at the magnitude of the city engineer’s plans. Mr. Allum, when apologising for being unable to accompany the party to Nihotupu, said the city looked forward to supplying the North Shore boroughs. The City Council would be drawing water from Maungatawhiri sooner than the public thought, he added. After viewing the Nihotupu reservoir and dam the visitors were entertained at afternoon tea at the caretaker’s house, when, at the request of Mr'. Aldridge Mr. Bush detailed his plans l'cir the Waitakere scheme. He had promised to expedite the Huia works and would keep his promise, said Mr. Bush, and by the summer of 1929-30, from Waitakere, Nihotupu and Huia there would be a supply of 14,500,000 gallons daily. The pipe line capacity to the city was 18,000,000 gallons daily, and an aqueduct was being constructed that would carry 32,000,000 gallons. If the North Shore local bodies took Waitakere water it might save the city building another pipe-line, he declared, as most of the present steel line from Waitakere could be utilised for other purposes. PUMPING PLANTS Ultimately pumping plants would be operating in the lower valleys of Nihotupu and Huia, and if the expense was justified three streams beyond Huia could be linked. Mr. F, E. Powell, engineer to the North Shore Water Board, elaborated his scheme for taking Waitakere water, with an 18-inch pipe, 14J miles long, crossing the harbour at Hobsonville. This would deliver 2,000,000 gallons at Birkenhead reservoir, which was 110 ft below the break pressure tank at Waitakere. Asked the cost of the Waitakere water at North Shore, Mr. Powell said he could not say definitely, but instanced Mount Albert, where water cost about 2s per 1,000 gallons. Mr. Aldridge said the cost would be Is 9d. QUESTION OF REFUND Mr. Bush was asked whether the city would refund to the North Shore the cost of the pipe-line (£236,000) if it was found that the city could not supply the Shore with water. This was a matter of finance, he replied, and for the City Council to decide. He full believed, however, that the city would always share its water supplies with its customers. Later, when the city obtained its water elsewhere than from the Waitakeres the Waitemata County and North Shore would have the ranges to themselves.