Wellington Water struggles to comply with water regulator’s standards

Wednesday, 2 October 2024

Wellington Water is not meeting new rules for drinking water, as well as targets for how much water residents use daily, according to the annual report on water standards that went to the area’s water committee.

The report showed that Hutt City had been non-compliant with the rules for bacteria in drinking water for two years and that all councils also fell well short of the water regulator Taumata Arowai’s target for water loss.

In 2022, the standards for drinking water were upgraded and although Wellington Water continues to meet the previous standards, it is finding the new standards more challenging.

An issue with the Waterloo plant involves 800 households not getting water which meets current standards. Work is under way to fix the problem but will take up to two years. Being non-compliant for the rules on bacteria and protozoa, does not mean the water is unsafe but it does mean there had been a systems failure.

“It is important to note that for bacteria and protozoa compliance, the drinking water treatment plants in the metropolitan Wellington region were compliant under previous rules and there had been no change to the drinking water quality,” said Wellington Water chair Nick Leggett.

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Leggett said that Wellington Water is working with councils and Taumata Arowai to achieve compliance.

In the metropolitan Wellington region, Wellington Water had reported two non-compliances of drinking water standards in the past financial year. These were in the Wainuiomata as well as Waterloo plants. All remaining water treatment plants in metropolitan Wellington are compliant.

There had been a short term issue with the cloudiness of water in the Wainuiomata plant.

That meant that the water was non-compliant on that day, which resulted in the plant being listed as non-compliant for the year.

In South Wairarapa, all the water treatment plants were non-compliant with the current rules for protozoa and bacteria for the latest financial year.

Leggett said Wellington Water welcomed the higher standards set for water quality and its job was to ensure those standards are met.

Meeting the standards for wastewater was an on-going challenge as the plants are all old and need a significant investment in cash.

It is not only water quality that is letting the councils down. All councils fall well short of the target for leaks on the public network, with Upper Hutt the worst performer with an estimated loss of 41% against a target of 20%.

Wellington City recorded a loss of 28% against a target of 17 %.

The amount of water being lost in the public and private networks is a major issue for councils. Wellington Water is trying to avoid drastic measures in summer by reducing leaks and encouraging people to use less drinking water.

Upper Hutt is using 450L per day, per resident, against a target of 415 and Hutt City 422 against a target of 385 litres. Wellington is failing to meet the daily target of 400L of water use by 183 litres.

Councils are also struggling to meet wastewater standards with Wellington only meeting half the standards.

Leggett said no one should be surprised about the issues identified with wastewater.

Problems with plants like Seaview and Moa Pt have been canvassed widely in the media and Wellington Water had made councils aware of the ongoing issues.

“Essentially, significant and ongoing investment into the wastewater treatment plants across the region is needed to ensure these plants are fully compliant and meet the expectations of the communities in which they serve.”