Information sessions for Ruakaka South sewerage scheme

This page contains information about upcoming public meetings about the proposed new sewerage system for Ruakaka South.

Ruakaka residents will be receiving a booklet from Council this week which outlines the proposed new sewerage system for Ruakaka South.

The aim of the scheme is to establish a sewerage system that will pump wastewater from individual properties to the Ruakaka Waste Water Treatment Plant, upgrade the plant to handle the increased volume of wastewater, replace septic tank systems and reduce risk to the environment.

In June this year, Council successfully secured a subsidy from central government to contribute up to $6.79 million plus GST to the project if it goes ahead.

Council’s Infrastructure and Services Manager Simon Weston said the government funding would reduce significantly the potential costs of the proposed scheme for ratepayers.

“If we are to take up government’s contribution we need to complete the project by May 2013, but we need to talk to the community before the project can be given the green light.”

“For some time we have been aware of potential environmental and health issues caused by having so many septic tanks in a relatively small area and we have been working with the community.

“We have also completed the preliminary design work and estimated the cost of the sewerage scheme.

“The cost to install equipment and hook each property up to the system is around $28,200 each, but we are proposing to subsidise this by around $18,000 per property. The balance, estimated to be $10,200 (GST incl) per residential household, would need to be provided by the property owner.”

Mr Weston said the Council subsidy is only available to residential properties and ratepayers would be given the option to pay a lump sum one-off payment or a 5 year targeted rate added to their annual rates.

Council is writing to all affected residents, providing an information booklet and encouraging the people to attend the upcoming public events.
(a) Public Open Day at the Ruakaka Surf Club Building, Bream Bay Drive on Saturday December 10 2011 between 10.30 am and 2.00 pm
(b) Public Meeting at the Ruakaka Surf Club Building, Bream Bay Drive on Saturday January 7 2012 starting 2.00pm.

During the open day and meetings staff will provide further information on the project and seek community support. The feedback will be presented to Council early in 2012.

Further meetings will be held with individual property owners to discuss details associated with the cost of the scheme, timing of construction, location of the pump chamber and other property details.