Industry leading wastewater disposal system

Taupo’s new wastewater land disposal system in View Road was officially opened today and has been described as ‘industry leading’.

“This state-of-the-art facility has put Taupo District Council at the forefront of the effluent disposal process,” said Mayor Rick Cooper. “Even better news is that it was delivered on time and significantly under budget.”

The View Road land disposal site is the biggest water-to-land disposal system in New Zealand and will provide Council an income in the future from the harvesting of grass.

The high tech site will be 100% carbon neutral when the final stage of the project, the planting of trees, is carried out. It also meets Environment Waikato’s tough nitrogen reduction targets even though it doesn’t fall in the Lake Taupo catchment area, indicating a very high level of effluent treatment.

“Community and cultural concerns were a high priority when planning this state of the art facility and the team has put in place an environmentally friendly and financially viable solution for the Taupo district,” said Infrastructure Services Group Manager, Ted Anderson.

Mr Anderson said the project was not without challenges but the collaboration between contractors and Council officers made it easy to work through any issues resulting in a positive final outcome.

The View Road land disposal site follows on from the success Taupo District Council has had with its award winning land disposal system in Rakaunui Road, which was constructed back in 1995. This system has proven that treated effluent disposed to land from the Taupo wastewater treatment plant does not create any adverse or detrimental effects to the local environment. In fact the continuous application over the last 13 years has seen the soil structure greatly improve and the site now produces in excess of 9,000 bales of haylage, generating over $400,000 in income for the Council.