Rotorua Lakes Council collects and treats wastewater from the Rotorua urban area and a number of lakeside and rural communities within the District.
Treatment of this wastewater is carried out at the Rotorua Wastewater Treatment Plant with the resulting effluent pumped to the Whakarewarewa forest where it is irrigated onto approximately 300 ha of plantation forest. This is done in accordance with a resource consent for the discharge of sewage effluent to land.
The resource consent for the current system ends in 2021 and work is underway to attempt to find an alternative solution for the discharge location and system.
A Project Steering Committee consisting of key stakeholders, Council and experts has been formed to identify and select alternative options for treating Rotorua’s wastewater.
After about two years of consideration of alternative options, the Project Steering Committee resolved to recommend to Rotorua Lakes Council to proceed to a resource consent application of the preferred upgrade of the existing wastewater treatment plant and a discharge to Puarenga Bay. The Project Steering Committee also recommended that Rotorua Lakes Council continue to work with interested parties to investigate alternative discharge options including the reuse of recovered water.
All of the Project Steering Committee recommendations were adopted by the Rotorua Lakes Council . Preliminary design of the preferred plant upgrade an corresponding discharge will commence.
Work has been ongoing over the last two years to find a solution to reticulate Lake Rotoma and Gisborne Point. A project steering committee comprising of key stakeholders has been established to help identify the options with the affected communities.
A preferred option has been established and a resource consent application for the preferred option is currently being finalised.
