New Zealand Pipeline for Wastewater Transport looking likely

The Building a pipeline in Queenstown New Zeland to transport Cardrona wastewater to Wanaka looks increasingly likely as initial assessments indicate the project is both technically and financially feasible.

Queenstown Lakes District Council infrastructure and assets general manager Erik Barnes said the proposal to pipe wastewater out of the Cardrona Valley to the Project Pure treatment station near Wanaka Airport was a ”great idea”, for several reasons.

”It’s an exciting option. It removes the waste out of that high-alpine environment, it increases the level of environmental protection and it’s affordable to the ratepayer,” Mr Barnes said.

”And we’re using available capacity in the Project Pure plan.”

While there were still some engineering issues to be worked through, early analysis of the proposal showed it was technically possible.

”Financially, it’s also looking quite viable, so it’s actually quite exciting.”

Broad cost estimates for the project – which would be included in next year’s annual plan – were about $2 million.

”Our next stage now is to do more detailed assessment of the design and pin down some costings more.”

Further consultation with the wider Cardrona community would also be carried out to determine how it wanted to proceed. The possibility of pumping Cardrona wastewater to Wanaka was raised by the Otago Regional Council last year. The QLDC had already been consulting the Cardrona community on which were the most suitable sites for a community scheme within the township.