The UV upgrade of another Council water treatment plant was achieved last week when the Tinwald plant came back online.

Council has a $10 million programme of work to upgrade all its drinking water plants to include a UV disinfection step, necessary for the plants to meet national drinking water rules.

Tinwald joins plants at Mayfield and Hinds were the UV is now operational, with work at Rakaia, Argyle Park and Chertsey not too far off being finished too. The Ashburton Domain and Bridge Street plants are on target to be completed by the end of this year.

This work sometimes affects water pressure in surrounding areas or even necessitates a short shutdown of a plant, so I want to thank residents for understanding if their water pressure has been lower on the odd occasion. These upgrades are important for Council’s compliance at a national level.

If you’re keen to hear the nuts and bolts about these projects, you can watch a recording of this week’s Three Waters Committee meeting, which is where councillors receive a detailed update about all drinking water operations, wastewater and stormwater.

It’s a meaty agenda and our water services team and contractors work extremely hard to ensure these three essential services run smoothly every hour of the day, as well as looking to future needs and improvements.

Eagle-eyed commuters may also have spotted a drilling rig in the Ashburton River – it’s all part of work associated with the second bridge.

NZ Transport Agency’s drilling contractor has been taking samples from the river banks and river bed at the location of the new bridge and the samples will reveal what the ground is like beneath the surface, and in turn help in designing the foundations to support the new bridge and embankments.

If you are interested in this important project, I encourage you to sign up for regular newsletter updates from NZTA by heading to their project page, nzta.govt.nz/2AB