Wastewater treatment
plant upgrade
What has increased
We own and operate five wastewater treatment plants that take sewage and wastewater from your home and clean/treat it before putting it back in the environment.
Wastewater treatment plant upgrade
In recent years, central government introduced much stricter rules about wastewater discharge to try and improve the health of NZ’s natural environment. We’ve been making small improvements towards meeting those standards.
Our resource consents to discharge treated wastewater back to land or waterways are due for renewal between 2024 and 2026, and to save time and money we have grouped them together as one resource consent for all five sites. As part of this process we are going to need to upgrade all of our wastewater treatment plants to comply with the new environmental regulations. Alongside this work we are also planning to increase the capacity of our plants to cater for growth.
This is a massive work programme that we must comply with, as we can’t operate wastewater treatment plants without a consent.
The one area where we have a choice and can manage the costs, is how we accommodate growth. We are choosing to stage the upgrades to our plants, to minimise the cost impact on our community. For example, we’re planning to spend $47 million between 2024-2026 on upgrading the Matamata Wastewater Treatment Plant, and a further $20 million in 15 years to accommodate growth. Staging this work will mean we end up spending more in total, but will spread the cost out over time, and limit the financial burden right now, when things are tough for many New Zealanders.
Why are we increasing funding?
There have been a number of regulatory changes from both central and regional government in recent years - particularly changes to the Drinking Water Standards and the National Policy Statement for Freshwater 2020. At the same time, a new water regulator, Taumata Arowai has been established, and charged with overseeing the water services sector and ensuring that we are compliant with the new regulations. Complying with these new requirements has meant the costs are significantly higher than we originally budgeted and in many cases the timing of the work has had to be moved forward.
Below is a comparison of what we expect to be required to upgrade our Wastewater Treatment Plant in the last LTP compared to what these upgrades look like now with the increased compliance requirements and the impact of rising costs (inflation) over the last three years.
Required Treatment Plant Upgrades
Town | Estimated Cost | Estimated Timing |
|---|---|---|
Matamata | $46.9m | 2024/25 – 2025/26 |
Morrinsville | $7.3m $19.2m | 2026/27 2033/34 |
Te Aroha | $3.1m* | 2026/27 |
Tahuna | $2.2m | 2028/29 |
*Given the scale of works required across the district, the upgrade of the Te Aroha treatment plant will be staged with stage 1 in 2026/27 as indicated, and stage 2 in 2035/36 at an estimated cost of $18.8m.
Standard of service this would provide:
Improvements towards complying with new regulations.
Impact on debt:
$78.2m.
Average additional operating costs:
$4.67m over 10 years.
Average additional cost per household connected to wastewaster:
$451.60 per year over 10 years.
Required Treatment Plant Upgrades
Town | Estimated Cost | Estimated Timing |
|---|---|---|
Matamata | $11.8m | 2025/26 -2028/29 |
Morrinsville | $4.1m | 2025/26 -2026/27 |
Te Aroha | $5.6m | 2026/27-2028/29 |
Tahuna | $Nil |
Standard of service we would provide:
Improvements towards complying with new regulations.
Impact on debt:
$18.3m.
Average additional operating costs:
$1.97m over 9 years.
Average additional operating costs per property per year:
$188.69 per year over 10 years.