5. Water Services, Alternative 10-Year-Plan Our vision

Hamilton, enriched by the Waikato River, a socially and environmentally responsible city and a good place to live:

• affordable and equitable, • safe, clean and green, • where people value cultural diversity, • celebrate our heritage, • engage in local affairs, • and develop a sustainable community for our grandchildren and future generations. And regionally: A future where a healthy Waikato River sustains abundant life and prosperous communities who, in turn, are all responsible for restoring and protecting the health and wellbeing of the Waikato River, and all it embraces, for generations to come. This is the overall vision that drives this Alternative Plan for Hamilton.

Three Waters Reform Central Government wants to amalgamate and centralise water services from all 67 local councils - that’s potable/drinking water, wastewater/sewerage, and stormwater systems. The plan is to create a handful of corporate monopolies like Auckland’s Watercare, under a new national regulator Taumara Arowai. This comes with warnings of $50 billion (or more) needed for upgrades across the nation. Hamilton City Council is planning to collect $226 million from ratepayers this year (from 1 July). That’s an extra $26 million on the previous year and an increase of 8.9% to existing ratepayers. More than half that would be from a new ‘compliance rate’ related to government requirements on water services Hamilton’s water services take out almost a third of the city budget, and the council has plans to spend $3.7 billion in operations. This includes $377m for water supply, $563m on waste water, and $218m on stormwater services. There are also plans for $170m upgrades to the Pukete wastewater plant plus an additional plant at $244m and an additional water treatment plant for $336m as well as $1.68billion for stormwater improvements and treatment. The council’s net debt will increase to $631 million in the coming year, rising to a billion in five years (2025) and up to $1.189 billion in 2031. These projections will change significantly in the event of the proposed water reforms, as the Auditor-General’s representative cautions (pg 81) We recommend that Council postpone any implementation of the proposed ‘compliance rate’ at least until 2022/23 and after the finalisation of the proposed Government Three Waters reforms

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Background The Three Waters Reform Programme was launched in July 2020 as a three-year programme led by Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta. This followed the 2016 Havelock North fatal campylobacter outbreak. and a 2018 consultants’ report on the nation’s water systems raising concerns about sustainability, capacity, and capability. Many councils are failing to meet existing discharge consents and freshwater management requirements. The reform programme is now being progressed through a ‘voluntary, partnership-based approach’ with the local government sector and iwi/Maori, ‘collaborative oversight’ and ‘central and local government expertise and experience’. A ‘bottom line’ is said to be public ownership’. Financial accountability is to be removed ‘off the balance sheet’ of councils (but the public will continue to pay for water services in a model similar to the corporatisation of energy in the 1990s). Cabinet sign-off is expected mid 2021 (Internal Affairs/Te Tari Taiwhenua BIM December 2020). Further consultation will follow, with implementation 2023/24 Hamilton City’s water services Hamilton has solo systems for water treatment (at Fitzroy) and sewerage (Pukete). Piped stormwater is untreated. In 2020, council staff advised councillors they could not afford the infrastructure improvements required to meet new Waikato River ‘swim-able’ standards. They have also advised there are significant risks in relying on Fitzroy and Pukete single treatment systems. The council has water restrictions every summer because of the inability of the Fitzroy plant and storage tanks to meet public demand. Only 10percent of water usage is for drinking or cooking. There has been no council promotion of home stormwater tanks or water recycling either for new builds or retrofits (which require council consents). There has been a move towards more ecologically sensitive stormwater controls including soakage pits and swales. These options lost out to engineers and pipes half a century ago when the council began its multi-million-dollar stormwater programme to ‘drain the swamp’ at a time of record city growth On-site stormwater soakage provides the following benefits: . Improved water quality by filtering out contaminants. . Improved hydrological response of stormwater peak flow by holding and releasing stormwater in a controlled and more natural manner. . Supports groundwater recharge. . The design of surface soakage devices can add to the amenity of the site and surrounding area. The Pukete ‘poo’ plant’s resource consent runs out in 2028, and several recent spills into the Waikato River have been publicized. Pukete was commissioned in 1976 and has had three upgrades (to tertiary treatment status), most recently completed for $30million. Since the 1990s, council’s refusal to consider alternative sewage treatment systems has prevented development in areas such as Peacocke, despite accessible information, official support, and world-wide experience (including NZ application). These include ‘off-the-grid’ and micro systems linked to reduce risk if one fails, noting high risk in the growing city’s reliance on a single plant. A recent Ministry for the Environment report reviewed land-based systems favourably. Some Iwi/Maori also hold the cultural view that human wastes should be cleansed through contact with land before returning to water bodies.

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Meanwhile, Hamilton City Council, Waikato and Waipa Districts’ Sub Regional Three Waters project with Future Proof the regional local government cluster have been pushing on with ‘Metropolitan Hamilton’ plans for two new Pukete-style sewage treatment plans north and south of the city, spending uncounted millions on consultants to prepare business cases. This is described as a major project in the Auckland-Hamilton Corridor.

Late in 2020, the City Council signed-off a $28m contract for a new sewage pipeline to connect the Peacocke area 14 km north to the Pukete treatment plant over a proposed $120m bridge across the Waikato River - part of the Southern Links motorway project which the council declined to review for climate change standards As well, the Wairere – Cobham Drive intersection is under construction for $59m (up $20 million because of “unforeseen ground conditions”).

The Three Waters Reforms are the most significant since the Lange Labour Government’s Rogernomics’ restructure and Michael Bassett’s local government amalgamations of the 1980s. They also appear modelled on Britain’s experience, carry no guarantees of improved service delivery (or cost effectiveness), and raise public memories of oligarchs who emerged from the New Zealand Experiment (as well as the Soviet Union’s) with entrepreneurial fortunes made out of corporatisation then privatisation of the public treasure chests.

Now, the same officials (policy, planners and engineers) responsible for the problems of the failing systems are driving the changes and seem likely to inherit the new models. Innovation or empire building? As an aside: Even billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates and their foundation have been promoting ‘off the grid toilets’ capable of removing pathogens from human waste and there are regular news items describing local concerns.

‘Off balance-sheet’ means ‘off the public radar’ and further erosion of local democracy. But local residents - the public - will continue to be the customers who pay. And off shore experience (and Watercare) insist that will be more…. There is endorsement of centralised standards and regulations (with active monitoring) of Three Waters services. But there are significant concerns at the removal of these services from council (and community) oversight and the potential for privatisation (despite Ministerial assurances), as well as questions over the expertise and attitudes of officials, engineers and consultants. Hamilton City Council staff, Future Proof, and local iwi appear to favour the proposed amalgamation and board control, with plans for new treatment plants and services costing billions in Hamilton’s proposed budget. Conversely, some councils and councillors are airing their concerns publicly, noting the stripping of significant responsibilities from councils and local democracy. Hamilton City Council has endorsed Government proposals for the reforms. But their Draft 10-Year-Plan 2021-2031 has a ‘business as usual’ flavour with no consideration of either the proposed reforms and the loss of these functions while including the old plans for billions in expenditure. And a special targeted rate from 1 July this year. (Refer HCC pg 71) The council also reports that ‘some of our asset data is not as complete as we would ideally like’ and that ‘some assets may need replacing’. And the draft report registers the ‘significant impact on the community’ of either the Pukete or Fitzroy treatment plants was unable to operate (pg73).

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A further concern is the failure to enable open public consideration of recognised innovations in the delivery of such services (apart from some glowing plans for Peacocke) and new thinking relating to the impacts of climate change (noting the new legislation ahead). We recommend that Council postpone any implementation of the proposed ‘compliance rate’ at least until 2022/23 and after the finalisation of the proposed Government three waters reforms

References https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/122375277/sky-harvest--turning-the-tide-on- rainwater-tanks

Dumping contaminants: Hamilton City Council slated for ... - RNZ City council lukewarm on river clean-up plan 25.06.2020 https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/121941586/city-council-lukewarm-on-river-cleanup- plan?rm=a MFE report on Waikato treatment systems (in favour of land-based) https://www.mfe.govt.nz/sites/default/files/appendix-14-wastewatermanagement.pdf Future Proof agenda 26.2.20

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