Council will begin the formal process of closing part of a paper road at Chertsey, so it can build a new water treatment plant for the township.

The current treatment plant is at Chertsey School, but there is no room to expand and Council has plans to upgrade the plant to meet national drinking water requirements.

The town’s bore will remain at the school and water will be piped about 180 metres up the road to the new treatment plant.
Group Manager of Infrastructure and Open Spaces Neil McCann said there was simply no room for building or storage expansion at the school site.

“The new plant will be much bigger to accommodate the cartridge filtration and UV disinfection steps required by the standards and quality assurance rules. It will have a new generator and pressure tank, and we will double the existing water storage by adding two more reservoir tanks.”

Chertsey’s water comes from a deep 145m well.

The new water treatment plant site is planned for part of an unformed part of Alexander Street, so Council must follow a legal process to repurpose the land for infrastructure.

Mr McCann said Council staff would be speaking to owners of land adjoining the boundaries of the portion of stopped road.

“The process will be publicly notified and any party may object, but we see that relocating the new water treatment plant to this paper road close by is an efficient use of ratepayer funds, while helping the community water supply meet Chertsey’s compliance requirements and future needs.”

It will cost about $12,000 to stop the road, including survey and consultant costs, and the proposed closure will be publicly advertised.

The Chertsey project is part of a wider upgrade package for water treatment plants at Ashburton and Rakaia, currently out for tender.