Water funds eight months away, say engineers

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 251, 19 July 1988, Page 3

Water funds eight months away, say engineers

There is no real possibility of funds from the Health Department for the Ohakune water treatment being available before April 1989. This was the message from engineer Graeme Young to the Ohakune Works and Reserves Committee last week. He said the scheme application still had to be made ready just in case there was any money not uplifted by some other authority in the mean time. He also told the committee that ministerial approval of the scheme was at least four months away. Mr Young told the Bulletin that various approvals had to accompany the application to the minister. These included a water right from the catchment board to discharge into the Mangawhero Stream. This would take about two months, he said. Clarifying the report from his firm, Payne Sewell Ltd, concerning estimated annual costs of the water treatment system and charges to growers, Mr Young said the charge of $5500 was a "worst case situation". He also referred to the leak detection programme that was recommended. He said the unaccountably high night time water use in Ohakune could point to a major leak. At present Ohakune's water use is two to three times that of a normal town of its size. Mr Young said if there were major leaks and they were fixed a result could be the reduction of peak water use and thus a delay in the need for the expensive Stage Two of the system. At the committee meeting chairman Ken Summerhays said: "There is a grave concern of course within the whole community that something does happen as soon as possible and I really feel we should be all geared up and ready to go." Councillors then debated whether research should be carried out on alternative systems (see separate story this page).