MEDIA RELEASE

Rain halts bore water use

18 MARCH 2013

Heavy rain on Sunday and Monday has enabled Council to stop supplementing the district’s water supply with bore water.

Water restrictions will continue however because further fine weather is expected from Tuesday.

A small amount of treated bore water had been added to the Waikanae Water Treatment Plant supply from early Friday morning.

No complaints about taste had been received, said David Bassett, Council’s Water and Waste Water Treatment Plant manager. “The dilution rate was only about 10% so it would not have been discernable.”

Council stopped adding treated bore water to the supply from 6am this morning, but Mr Bassett says it will take a couple of days to work its way out of the system.

The bore water was added when the Waikanae River fell to just 1,100 litres a second. On Monday morning it was running at about 7,000 litres a second.

Mayor Jenny Rowan commended lower water usage during the big dry, which had delayed earlier use of bore water.

“People should not relax their water usage,” said Mayor Rowan. “Another weather front is not expected until at least Sunday, but we are hopeful bore water will not be needed again this summer so long as people remain careful.”

The fact that water consumption was lower than normal last Saturday when rain was predicted the following day and people were at home to use water, shows people understand that the water situation is serious, she said.

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