Selwyn_Times: January 31, 2024

Wednesday January 31 2024 Selwyn Times
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
NEWS 5
Big decisions loom over chlorination
• By Daniel Alvey
THE COUNCIL could apply for
chlorine exemptions across 17
water supplies, but it would cost
about $82 million.
The council will decide today
whether the pursuit of chlorination
exemptions will be one of
the decisions for the community
in the 2024-34 Long-Term Plan.
Currently, in the draft LTP
ratepayers will be presented with
four ‘Big Decisions’ which will
be key deciders in the final rates
numbers.
In 2021, drinking water regulator
Taumata Arowai introduced
the requirement for chlorination
of all public drinking water
supplies, unless an exception is
granted.
Of the district’s supplies, the
following are potentially eligible
for exemptions: Claremont,
Darfield, Dunsandel, Jowers Rd,
Kirwee, Lake Coleridge, Leeston,
Lincoln, Prebbleton, Rakaia
Huts, Rolleston, Southbridge,
Springston, Tai Tapu, Taumutu,
Te Pirita, and West Melton.
The following supplies would
not be eligible for exemption and
the council would not pursue an
exemption: Upper Selwyn Huts,
Dalethorpe, Hororata, Acheron,
Sheffield, Waddington Springfield,
Castle Hill, Malvern Hills
PHOTO: GETTY
HAVE YOUR SAY
Is spending about $82 million on chlorination exemptions money well spent?
Send your views in 200 words or less to daniel.alvey@starmedia.kiwi
and Arthur’s Pass.
In the coming weeks council
is expecting a decision on the
Rakaia Huts exemption application
Taumata Arowai, which was
applied for in June 2022.
For the upgrades required
for Rakaia Huts, it will cost
$217,000. The remaining 16
supplies would cost about $67.2
million plus $15.2 million in
operating costs.
If the council went ahead with
the exemptions it would add
about $231 to rates per household
per year.
Council head of asset management
Murray England said the
staff’s recommendation is to
retain chlorine in the water supplies
and not pursue exemptions.
“I think now we have landed
with quite a different question.
Before it was ‘should we add
chlorine?’ The question we are
now asking is ‘should we take
chlorine off?’”
England said.
England said
when the council
was asked to
add chlorine
to its water, it
was making the
Murray system safer.
England “Now it has
changed and is ‘should we make
the supply more risky by taking
it out?’”
Springs Ward councillor Grant
Miller said the decision should
not be in the LTP
when it was discussed
at a council
workshop last
week.
“We are opening
ourselves up
to a lot of angst,
Grant Miller
a lot of work for
staff and court
community for little gain,”
Miller said.
Ellesmere Ward councillor
Shane Epiha supported Millers’
view, and so did Rolleston Ward
councillors
Nicole Reid and
Phil Dean.
Deputy mayor
Malcolm Lyall
said the community
needs
to be asked
questions for
transparency.
Malcolm
Lyall
“This is being transparent, giving
them the opportunity to see
the cost. People think you turn it
off, it’s cheap, but it’s not.
“People need to know the cost
otherwise they will make it up
and we have misinformation.”
Lyall’s opinion was backed up
by Rolleston Ward councillor
Sophie McInnes, and Malvern
Ward councillor Lydia Gliddon.
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