Water Supply

114 2012-22 Hauraki Long-Term Plan – Volume 1 of 2 Water Supply What is Water Supply and why is the Council involved? The Water Supply activity involves the provision of domestic and agricultural water to the Hauraki Communities. Water supply is a core service of the Council and a sound water supply is a prerequisite to public health and safety and economic well being. The Council also aims to maintain sufficient supply in urban areas to meet fire fighting requirements. To achieve this the Council owns and operates eight reticulated water supply networks that service the main urban communities of Paeroa, Waihi and Ngatea, the smaller communities of Karangahake, Mackaytown, Waikino, Kerepehi, Waitakaruru and Turua, and the rural areas of the Hauraki Plains, Kaimanawa (rural area servicing Hikutaia/Maratoto area), and Ohinemuri (Paeroa rural). Fresh water is essential for people and animals. The Council provides sufficient quantities of treated fresh water for public health amenity, to reduce the risk of water borne diseases and to provide an adequate water supply for livestock farming. The Council undertakes this activity to meet the community expectation that safe water will be provided, as well as to meet statutory obligations. The water supply service is provided on a user pays basis which is normally achieved through user charges, general rates and targeted rates. Water Supply 115 How does the Council provide Water Supply? The water supply assets are grouped in networks which serve specific areas of the District. The Council provides the infrastructure for the delivery of water and manages and monitors the maintenance, renewal, replacement and expansion programmes. The Council is involved in all aspects of water supply within the District. Water sources for the various supply networks are established and consented. Water treatment plants are owned and operated to process the water to the standards required by the Ministry of Health. Pipe networks are managed and maintained to deliver water to consumers. The Council provides a rural supply to the Hauraki Plains, where groundwater quality is poor and surface water is insufficient to support the rural communities and livestock. The Council’s capital works programme aims to ensure that water supplies are in a position to meet demand which arises as a result of growth and other factors. This planning includes the need to obtain consents and other approvals. Legislation requires the Council to identify where treated water supplies are required, and to either provide the supplies directly or maintain an overview of supplies which may be provided by others. Water Source The Council has resource consents from the Waikato Regional Council to collect water from twelve streams and rivers. The major abstraction points and consented volumes are: Waitawheta River (7,000 m³/day) Waihou River (15,000 m³/day) Waitakaruru River (6,000 m³/day) Walmsley Stream (3,500 m³/day) Water treatment Water is treated in ten water treatment plants and reticulated to eight public water supply systems throughout the Hauraki District. Water storage and distribution The eight water supply systems in the Hauraki District provide a treated supply of water to 7,500 properties. Approximately 587 kilometres of main pipelines transport water to these connections across the network. More than 8,000 consumer water meters are installed across all the water supply systems. The quality of water supplied varies throughout the District depending on the water source, scheme design and level of treatment. In Waihi, Waikino, Paeroa, Karangahake and Mackaytown water supply is ‘on-demand’, meaning that users can expect water to be continuously available at a reasonable pressure. In the Plains, Ohinemuri and Kaimanawa areas water supply is not ‘on demand’. The Council undertakes to provide for water requirements over 24 hours, and users are required to provide on-site storage to cover daily periods of high demand. The Plains water supply exemplifies the diverse nature of the water supply systems throughout the Hauraki District. This system covers an area of 33,000 hectares and is used primarily for stock watering and dairy shed use, as well as serving a population of approximately 4,500 people in the townships of Ngatea, Waitakaruru, Kerepehi, Turua and the rural Plains area. The pipe system is pressurised by pumping from stations at Kerepehi and Waitakaruru. If dairying intensifies significantly on the Plains, additional water sources and treatment capacity are likely to be required. Water is taken from five separate sources and treated at three treatment plants. The scheme was originally designed to provide each farm with 225 litres per hectare per day into consumers’ on-site storage over a 24 hour period. This design approach was aimed at affordability. An ‘on demand’ 116 2012-22 Hauraki Long-Term Plan – Volume 1 of 2 supply of this scale would require pipes, pumps and treatment plants significantly larger than those currently in use. The current system is sized to provide 450 litres per hectare per day. Outside of the public water supply systems, approximately 2,700 people in the District obtain their water supply from their own rainwater tanks, private bores, or a small number of minor piped networks at various schools and industries that serve more than single premises. Legally, the Council is required to act: When potential health risks from water supplies (whether private or public) are identified. To ensure that all inhabited buildings have safe and adequate water supplies. To ensure that fire hydrants are installed in gazetted urban fire districts. The Council must monitor and maintain the ongoing sufficiency, effectiveness and efficiency of the water supply systems. In November 2010 the Kaiaua area was incorporated into the Hauraki District (from the former Franklin District Council) when the Auckland City Councils were amalgamated. There were no water supply systems transferred to Hauraki District Council. All current water supply systems in the Kaiaua area are privately owned and operated. How does the Water Supply activity promote sustainability? The focus of the Water Supply activity is the sustainable provision of water to ensure on-going social and economic well-being for future generations of the Hauraki community. It also endeavours to support sustainable principles by mitigating adverse effects from this activity, and promoting a balanced set of well-beings including consideration of environmental, social, cultural and economic benefits in decision making processes. Some ways in which the Council acts sustainably in delivering this activity are: Education to residents and ratepayers about sustainability and how the Council can help protect the resources of the District. Compliance with resource consents issued and monitored by the Waikato Regional Council which limit the volumes of water taken to sustainable levels. This in turn ensures that there is sufficient water in the rivers to sustain river life and ecosystems. Maintaining sufficient and healthy water, which is essential for sustainable social well-being and quality of life. Water for households and farms is also a key requirement for sustainable economic well-being, which is largely dependent on farming in the Hauraki District. Promotion of sustainable use of water by measuring the water supplied to each user, and restricting use during particular periods. Users are able to monitor their own consumption and are charged for the volume metered, providing an incentive to reduce unnecessary use of water. The Council’s Water Management Plans provide for restricted water use throughout the District during drought conditions. By limiting water consumption to only essential water uses at these times the Council acts in a sustainably accountable way. Pressure control is an additional means available to reduce water usage. Water Supply 117 Sustainability Tuner for Water Supply Water Supply - Well-being Dimension Scale Economic Environmental Social Cultural 5 What does this mean? 4 The impact of the Water Supply Group of Activities on 3 the four aspects of community well-being is generally positive, providing useful infrastructure to contribute to a 2 healthy and productive community. Negative effects 1 associated with this group include the cost to provide 0 and operate these services, and effects on the environment if natural resources are over-utilised. -1 -2 For a further explanation of the criteria and how to use -3 the sustainability tuner please see Appendix 7. -4 -5 External issues that affect Water Supply Capital and renewal works for the Water Supply activity can be influenced by factors outside the control of the Council. These factors include obtaining resource consents, tender prices, weather conditions, natural disasters, climate change, changes in community expectations and legislative requirements. Capital Works programmes show specific years for undertaking the work, but actual timing may vary as a result of any of the above factors. Asset Valuations and Depreciation The Council re-values its assets every three years to assess total network values and to recalculate depreciation based on those new values. Depreciation - the wearing out of the asset - is an operating expense which is required to be funded. Significant changes in asset valuations are usually driven by: New assets added to the valuation, being new work in the last financial year, or assets not previously identified, valued or included. Cost increases in replacing assets over the three years between re-valuations. The annual depreciation amount for water has decreased by 21.5% compared to the 2011/12 budgets, predominantly from delays in the Kerepehi Water Treatment Plant capital project, which was not constructed in 2011/12 as originally planned. There is also an effect from updating the previously expected reticulation asset lives that were updated from the previous valuation as a result of better knowledge of condition and performance factors. The depreciation amount has an impact on the total operating expenditure for Water Supply as depreciation is an operating cost.

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