Council has brought forward some of the Water Budget to fund field work that is now being done earlier than expected.
On August 19 Council confirmed the River Recharge with Groundwater as the top ranked water supply option for the Waikanae/Paraparaumu/Raumati catchment.
The decision was subject to sufficient funding being brought forward to cover the cost of drilling, testing, monitoring, modelling and assessment work associated with the River Recharge with Groundwater option.
On August 19 Council also confirmed the Maungakotukutuku Dam as the second ranked water supply option.
Council was told today (September 30) that further technical investigations were required and outcomes confirmed before Council approval was sought to either lodge resource consent applications for the River Recharge with Groundwater or to proceed with the Lower Maungakotukutuku Dam option.
Council Chief Executive Pat Dougherty stressed the work was not in addition to what had been planned. “We only want to bring some of the work forward. This means we are looking at a budget variance of $450,000 this financial year and a projected variance of $700,000 in 2011/1012.”
Mr Dougherty said “on paper” this could result in a rates increase in 2011/2012 of 1.21% for those living in Waikanae, Paraparaumu and Raumati, and a lesser impact on those ratepayers connected to Council water supplies elsewhere in the District.
Mr Dougherty said an important benefit of the River Recharge with Groundwater option was the ability to stage its development and so spread costs over a much longer period.
“The work we propose doing over the next eight months will enable us to confirm the staging of the project. We expect this staging to result in a lower project cost for current ratepayers.”
