Chemical storage issues at Hauraki District Council’s water treatment plants will cost just over $141,000 to fix, councillors have been told.
Councillors were presented with a report at their September 9 meeting, outlining several “high-priority hazardous substance items” needing to be addressed at the Kerepēhi and Waihī water treatment plants, and Waihī wastewater treatment plants.
The problems were identified during a compliance audit in June, which was carried out by a different company than in previous cycles.
“The assessment found compliance issues relating mainly to chemical separation, fire-rated barriers, vapour sealing and secondary containment,” the report read.
The council has subsequently been issued with an order from Worksafe NZ to fix the issues.
Group manager of service delivery, Adrian de Laborde, told councillors he was disappointed the problem hadn’t been picked up by previous auditors.
“The fact that it’s been designed by the experts and it’s been audited every year, we assumed that it was safe,” he said.
However, mayor Toby Adams said he was grateful that the issue had been flagged, for the sake of staff safety.
“We’re actually grateful that we’ve changed to a different auditor who’s actually picked up potential hazards,” he said.
The issues will be addressed through targeted building and coating works, to ensure chemicals at each site are correctly contained and separated.
Meanwhile, councillors also heard that the single-lane Ramarama Stream Bridge is due to be replaced by a two-lane bridge, with construction beginning in September, 2027. The nearly century-old bridge, just north of Whiritoa on State Highway 25, currently sees around 2500 vehicles a day, 13 per cent of which are heavy vehicles.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency will be building the new $10 million bridge alongside the current one to minimise disruption during construction.
