IN ATTENDANCE: Crs Gordon, Lockwood, Messrs B Somers (Utilities Manager) and Mrs R Johnson (Council Secretary)

RESOLVED

THAT the apologies of His Worship the Mayor be received and sustained.

WWCC00/21 Baker/Carmine CARRIED

Pursuant to Section 46A(7) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987, the Chairman is to call for late items to be accepted. There were none.

WWCC00/22 Carmine/Baker CARRIED

The Utilities Manager advised that Thames Coromandel District Council were holding a series of ratepayers meetings to discuss future water usage. Cr Troughton and the Utilities Manager would be attending the meeting at Puriri.

A discussion was held regarding the Waihi Sewerage Jetflote Trial held recently at Waihi.

A desktop survey and field study were being undertaken investigating the possibility of suitable bore water in the Waihi basin. Once the report was complete a decision would be made whether a full-scale bore was required.

Fish and Game NZ were provided with information about the impact of the proposed discharge. As a result they have advised they no longer have any objections to this consent. There are now no formal objections to this consent proposal.

As part of the original land use conditions for the treatment plant. There was a condition requiring "The ponds and environs be landscaped and planted to a satisfactory level." To date there has been no planting undertaken. Currently the rear boundary was being surveyed to determine its correct location and so the boundary fence could be positioned in the position. As part of the upgrade works it was proposed to plant along the road and rear boundaries in a hedge like manner to provide a visual barrier. The height of the planting would be kept to just above eye height to allow wind aeration of the pond.

WWCC00/23 Carmine/Brownlee CARRIED

The draft resource consent conditions had recently been received from Environment Waikato and were currently being reviewed.

As part of the renewal process for the Waihi Sewage Treatment Plant discharge consents, it was important to have a clear understanding of the current state of the Ohinemuri River. The existing condition of the river would be used to determine the likely effects of the future discharges. The better the quality of data available, the easier it was to support proposed discharge standards. There had been some testing undertaken between 1991 and 1994, however more comprehensive and more recent data was considered necessary.

Testing of the Ohinemuri River upstream of the treatment plant had recently started and would continue every two weeks until the end of February. The tests would be undertaken at different times in the day and regardless of river conditions. The tests would include pH, suspended solids, ammonia, dissolved reactive phosphorous, total phosphorous, total nitrogen and E Coli.

As part of this years riparian planting programme, a 400 metre section of the Walmsley Stream next to the DoC estate has had riparian enhancement and plants planted at strategic locations.

A discussion was held regarding future water resources in the District.

When the Irwin Rd site was first purchased for the Paeroa Sewage Treatment Plant, Landcare Research collected several large cores of the soil from the site to test it for suitability for disposal of treated effluent. These cores were combined with other cores from throughout the region and used to measure the effectiveness of the different soil types to treat effluent. These tests have been ongoing for several years and have produced some interesting results. The presentation by Malcolm McLeod was to present Council with the results of this research. Council had not been involved in the funding of this research.

Bruce Wallace Partners have been engaged to prepare an Issues and Options report on the possible options to renew this discharge consent. This report should be available for consideration by the Committee at the December meeting.

Five consultants were invited to tender for this project of which 4 tenders were received. Groundwater and Environmental Services were selected as the successful tenders with a fee of $5,685 ex GST to complete the next stage of this project. Their report should be completed before Christmas.

The Utilities Manager advised that on the 10 October, His Worship the Mayor and three Councillors made a presentation to Environment Waikato’s Regulatory Committee. The presentation was on Councils water and wastewater renewal strategy. The presentation was well received and after the presentation there was general agreement that with both Councils working closely together, many of the issues could be easily resolved.

Seventeen resource consents relating to the 14 Hauraki District Councils water take are due to expire around 1 October 2001.

Council has recognised the expiry of these consents was likely to have a significant impact on the water supply schemes and has developed a long-term strategy to reduce the impacts.

The most probable options to gain long term resource consents have been detailed in the Hauraki District Council Water Supply Strategic Plan. These options have been evaluated in terms of cost, risk, environmental impact, cultural effects and water quality. From this evaluation, the most appropriate options were determined. Funding to implement the most appropriate options had been included in "Councils Long Term Financial Strategy".

Preparing the resource consent applications and supporting documentation is a significant undertaking and will require the engagement of a specialist consultant. Currently several consultancies are being invited to tender for this work.

The degree of consultation necessary with effected parties will become more apparent as the project evolves. A presentation on the draft resource consent and consultation programme will be made to the February meeting of this Committee. Following this the Issues and Options reports will be completed for presentation to the March meeting. Initially it was proposed to consult with the following groups;

It was suggested that a small group be set up with representatives from each Iwi, DoC, Fish and Game NZ and Council staff. This would save considerable time.

It was normal for full ecological surveys of the streams to be undertaken as part of the supporting documentation for water takes. A key part of the water Supply Strategy was that for many of the existing water takes short-term (5 to 10 years) consents would be sought. The reason for this was it was not proposed to retain the existing takes in the long term but to abandon them.

As most of these water takes have existed unchanged for many decades, it was considered the full ecological surveys would not provide any meaningful data given that the takes would only be continued for a short time until the long term solution has been implemented. Short term reductions in stream take quantities were not possible and riparian planting would not grow enough in the short term to have any benefit. On this basis it was proposed to submit some applications with only a minimal ecological survey.

The next meeting would be held on Tuesday 5 December 2000 at 10.00 am

There were no late items.

The meeting closed at 11.45 am.

CONFIRMED

D Johansen

December 2000