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Saving water to keep bores at bay
03 December 2008
Saving water to keep bores at bay
For all those Waikanae, Paraparaumu and Raumati residents who want to stay on river water as long as they can, the Council is urging voluntary conservation of water to keep the bores at bay.
“Water supply is a balancing act between Waikanae River levels and the level of consumption,” GM Assets & Services Gary Simpson said today.
“Consumption increased steadily through November as finer and drier weather arrived. It peaked last weekend with consumption of more than 21 million litres on Saturday and 22 million on Sunday. The maximum level permitted under the consent for the Waikanae River is 23 million litres per day,” he said.
"With the bit of rain we’ve been having the river level is fluctuating quite a lot but it comes back down quickly. At the moment we can stay with sprinklers on alternate days but when we the river gets down to 1100 litres per second of flow, we have to reduce our take and, unless consumption is down, we will have to start introducing the bores to supplement supply.
“We can take water from the river down to a flow of 1050 litres per second and continue to supply river water only but consumption needs to be around 17 million litres per day, a level we were last at earlier in November.
“After that, if there’s little further rain and the river continues to fall, we’ll gradually combine river and bore water until we reach 850 litres per second of river flow, at which point we have to go totally onto the bores.
“As we promised earlier, we will aim to give at least 48 hours notice of introducing water from the Waikanae borefield.
“Even then, those with concerns about the a taste of the bore water can help by keeping consumption down so we don’t have to introduce the last of the bores which has the hardest water and which seems to provoke the most taste complaints and concerns over rattling kettles.
Kapiti Coast District Council will continue to monitor the district’s water usage and assess the water use levels on a daily basis. Check the website www.kapiticoast.govt.nz, and Water Watch.
ends
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