New Taupo wastewater disposal area gets green light

Council has been given the green light to spray treated wastewater from the Taupo Pollution Control Plant on a block of farmland on the eastern outskirts of Taupo.



The new disposal site, situated at the Broadlands Road and View Road intersection, is needed to boost the capacity of Council’s current disposal area at Rakaunui Road and to compensate for around 25% of the existing disposal site which is will no longer be available once the East Taupo Arterial Highway (ETA) is constructed.



Chairman of the Taupo/Kaingaroa-Mangakino/Pouakani Committee Kathryn Uvhagen said confirmation of resource consent approval for the new wastewater site was very good news.



“We now have certainty that the land at the disposal site in Rakaunui Road that is needed for the ETA, will be available around the time that construction is scheduled, which is a big relief.”

“In addition the new disposal site has much greater capacity than Rakaunui Road and should serve the town’s disposal needs well into the future,” she said.



Programme Manager Infrastructure, Jeff Kivell said a resource consent application to spray the treated effluent on a 360 hectare block of land Council is purchasing from Landcorp, was approved by Environment Waikato this month (February 2008), subject to conditions.

He said Council had earmarked approximately $25 million for development of the new Broadlands Road wastewater site, including land purchase. Council planned to have 95 hectares of the 360 hectare block ready to spray with treated effluent by December.



Around 9,000 wrapped bales of haylage are currently harvested each year from the Rakaunui Road site returning around $400,000. Council intends to expand the operation when the new disposal site is up and running.