Watercare opens new treatment plant that transforms wastewater services for Warkworth and Snells/Algies communities

Watercare officially opened the new Snells Beach Wastewater Treatment Plant this morning, marking a significant milestone in its $450 million programme investment to transform wastewater services for the Warkworth and Snells/Algies communities.

The treatment plant is now taking more than half of Warkworth’s wastewater flows, with the new pump station in Lucy Moore Memorial Park, a five-kilometre transfer pipeline and the ocean outfall all working together to transport and treat the area’s wastewater. It will treat all of Warkworth’s wastewater when the commissioning process ends next month.

Papa Hetaraka from Ngāti Manuhiri joined Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk and Watercare Board chair Geoff Hunt in the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Mayor Wayne Brown says the state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant is a positive outcome for the community.

“The plant’s designed to accommodate population growth over the next 35 years. Initially, the plant will pick up the existing load from the community and allow for an additional 1000 – 2500 new residents and has been designed with scalability in mind, so will eventually accommodate up to twice the current population served in the area,” says Mayor Brown.

“These improvements will reduce wet-weather overflows, increase the reliability of the wastewater system, better protect waterways and significantly improve the health of the Mahurangi River and surrounding marine ecosystems.”

Watercare chief executive Jamie Sinclair says the treatment plant opening is a proud moment for Watercare staff and its delivery partners.

“The treatment technology we have at this new plant is a huge step up from what we have at the original Warkworth and Snells Beach treatment plants, so we’re able to treat the community’s wastewater to a much higher level.

“It also means we can decommission the ageing Warkworth Wastewater Treatment Plant and end the discharge of treated wastewater to the Mahurangi River. Instead treated wastewater will be discharged via the new ocean outfall 800 metres off the coast of Martin’s Bay.”

The new infrastructure supports growth in the beach communities and the southern parts of Warkworth.

“This treatment plant can handle the wastewater from 18,000 people, and its design takes into account future upgrades that will be timed to meet population growth. When we need to, we’ll be able to add treatment capacity without major impact to the plant’s daily operations.”

Photo: Watercare programme director Rob Burchell and project manager Casper Kruger at the new Snells Beach Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The final project in the $450 million programme – the growth servicing pipeline from the showgrounds to the new Lucy Moore Pump Station – is currently in design. Construction will begin next year.

“It’s this final piece of the puzzle that unlocks growth in north Warkworth and will almost eliminate overflows of untreated wastewater to the Mahurangi River in wet weather,” Sinclair says.

“We’ve submitted our consent application for this project and are working on the detailed design. We’re currently sourcing the tunnelling machinery and expect to start construction early next year.

“We’ve adjusted the construction programme so we can have the critical section of this pipeline in service later next year.

“In the meantime, we’ve been doing everything we can to reduce overflows as much as possible.

“In July we completed construction of an interim upgrade to the town centre’s wastewater network, with new pumps and a larger pipeline over the heritage bridge. Now that the downstream infrastructure is operating, we’ll see a reduction in the frequency and volume of overflows to the Mahurangi River that occur in wet weather,” Sinclair says.

Facts about the wastewater treatment plant project:

• 500,000 hours worked

• 100 kilometres of electrical cable installed

• 1.8 kilometres of stainless steel pipe

• 30,000 cubic metres of earth removed

• 8000 cubic metres of concrete poured

Sinclair says the Snells Beach Wastewater Treatment Plant project has an exemplary safety record.

“We’re incredibly proud of the health and safety record across this infrastructure programme. More than 800,000 hours have been worked on these four projects, and yet we’ve had just one injury that involved time off work. This is an extraordinary achievement, and we’d like to thank our staff and contractors for fostering a very strong health and safety culture across this programme of work.”

Commissioning of the treatment plant will continue through to October. Work will then begin to decommission the old Warkworth and Snells Beach treatment plants.