Ōhakea air base neighbours should have clean drinking water by Christmas

Saturday, 26 June 2021

Toxic firefighting foam used at the Ōhakea air base contaminated the water supply of surrounding residents. A scheme to give them clean water is expected to be completed by Christmas.

Work on a scheme to give Manawatū residents clean drinking water, because their previous supply is contaminated with chemicals from toxic firefighting foam, is expected to be done by Christmas.

The Government has funded the bulk of the new water supply piped to Ōhakea residents near the New Zealand Defence Force base in rural Manawatū, shelling out $10.8 million.

The groundwater and soil around Ōhakea air force base is contaminated with the chemical PFAS, which was formerly used in firefighting foam at the base.

On top of the government money, the Manawatū District Council has allocated $2m as a contingency, meaning the scheme could cost up to $12.8m.

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Work had ramped up throughout the year and was on track to finish by Christmas, said Hamish Waugh, the council’s general manager of infrastructure.

“At this stage everything is on track to achieve that, within the allocated budget as well.”

“Drawdown” tests were happening to confirm the availability, quality and quantity of water to supply the area.

The council had also awarded the contract for building a reservoir. Work on that was expected to start in the coming months.

And officials had prepared a report for councillors about the contract for the water treatment plant.

Waugh said initial discussions on that would be heard in the public-excluded part of a council meeting because of commercial sensitivity. He said once that contract was awarded work could start within the month.

Fulton Hogan was before Christmas awarded the contract to instal large-diameter water main pipes. “They are well under way.”

Drillco was installing the smaller pipes. “There are about 27 kilometres of pipes to go in. We’re about halfway,” Waugh said.

Meanwhile, officials were talking to property owners about how they could connect to the new supply, if they were interested and how much water they would likely use.

Waugh said there were about 105 properties within the contaminated plume and most seemed keen to connect to the new pipes.

PFAS is slow to break down and could remain in the ground at Ōhakea, over an area as large as 1600 hectares, for more than a century. Firefighting foam containing PFAS compounds can no longer be used.

The contamination became public in 2017 and affected residents’ drinking water has since been provided by the Defence Force. Up to November, that had cost about $140,000, according to documents released under the Official Information Act.