Sewerage plan for Lake Tarawera
Plans to connect the Lake Tarawera community to Rotorua's sewerage system will be discussed at a district council meeting on Monday.
Rotorua district councillors will discuss a range of options available to residents, and how they will look to find subsidies for the Lake Tarawera community, at an extraordinary meeting of the Rotorua District Council infrastructure services committee from 12.30pm in the council's Civic Centre.
Councillors will need to decide on their preferred option for the handling of sewerage at the lakeside community from five possibilities, ranging in cost from $15,000 to $44,000, for each of the 391 properties around the lake.
Infrastructure services committee chairwoman Glenys Searancke said councillors would "do their darnedest" to secure subsidies from either the Government or the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.
Mrs Searancke pointed out councillors and the Lake Tarawera community would have to decide on a preferred option before December 2014 when the regional council would apply its On Site Effluent Plan (OSET).
The plan requires residents to either upgrade their existing sewerage system to an advanced nutrient removal system, apply for a resource consent to allow them to continue using their existing system, or connect to a community sewerage system.
The regional council OSET plan is designed to stop nutrient from leaching into the lake, further degrading lake water quality.
"The good thing about this is that about 90 per cent of Tarawera residents are very keen for a new system to go in," she said.
"But at this point in time we have no funding for subsidies for that area."
She said subsidies were calculated on the socio-economic conditions in the area but that should not come into consideration when it came to protecting the district's lakes.
However, anyone connecting to a new system would automatically be entitled to a district council subsidy of $1500 and councillors would lobby both central government and the regional council for further funding.
Mrs Searancke said she felt the best option for residents would be to install low pressure grinder pumps that would take sewage to the main truck line at the Blue Lake and then on to the city's wastewater treatment plant.
She said a public meeting would be held on Labour Weekend when many out-of-town property owners would be available to discuss the proposed plans.
THE OPTIONS
- Low Pressure Grinder Pump via Tarawera Rd - $27,000
- Low Pressure Grinder Pump via Playne's Farm - $24,500
- Conventional gravity system via Tarawera Rd - $44,000
- Conventional gravity system via Playne's Farm - $42,000
- Upgrade existing to advanced nutrient removal systems - $15,000 to $25,000
* Figures are for individual properties exclusive of GST
