Section 3: Council Activities

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Water

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Responsibility

Brent Manning (Manager Water and Wastes)

Description of service

The service provides safe, affordable and reliable drinking-quality water to all customers within designated urban and rural water supply areas. There is provision of fire-fighting capability within designated urban water supply areas. The service also maintains an untreated raw water supply infrastructure to specific industry (ANZCO) within Waitara.

This activity also provides additional water treatment capacity to enable a wider section of the community to have high-quality treated water reticulated to them through urban growth and rural expansion where practicable.

The relatively low cost, quality and abundance of water supplies in the district is a strategic strength in attracting and retaining businesses and enabling urban growth for which water is a significant input.

Scale of service

This describes the size and scope of the activity.

Annual average of 35 million litres per day water production.
Current total peak abstraction capacity 74 million litres per day.
Four treatment plants (New Plymouth, Inglewood, Oakura, Okato).
19 water storage reservoirs (on 13 separate sites).
Five pump stations (Cowling Road, Veale Road, Tikorangi, Mangorei Road, Okato).
620km of water mains.
$200 million network replacement value.
28,347 total customer connections, of which 1,632 are metered and 582 are restricted flow.
>90 per cent of district population serviced.

Rationale for activity

There is no express obligation in New Zealand legislation for local authorities to provide water services, although there is an implied obligation for them to do so. This implied obligation is derived from various provisions in the Health Act, Building Act and other legislation. The Council does have an obligation to provide for fire-fighting capability within its established urban water supply areas. Once a service is provided there are very strong restrictions on transferring control of the water supply or exiting the service or divestment of the infrastructure.

The inherent monopoly of water supply networks requires either public ownership or regulation to ensure that the community receives water at the cost of production, without monopoly profits being added to the cost to households.

The Council owns and runs water networks to ensure that public health is protected at low cost. The district’s water supplies are also designed to provide a high level of reliability in emergency situations.

The Council (and all public drinking-water suppliers) are required to comply with the Drinking Water Standards for New Zealand 2008 (DWSNZ).

Water services contributes greatly to the community well-beings, in particular social and economic well-being. It provides a safe, healthy and efficient water supply at a relatively low cost for many uses including drinking water to over 90 per cent of the district’s population and fire-fighting water to over 80 per cent.

An assessment of water and sanitary services (including sewage disposal and solid waste) has been published as required under the Local Government Act 2002 and was reviewed and republished in 2010.

Contribution to Community Outcomes

Water supply primarily contributes to the Connected Community Outcome by providing a contiguous and reliable network from source to the customer. Water treatment and supply also makes significant contributions to the Sustainable, Prosperous and Secure and Healthy Community Outcomes by providing water at high-quality and low cost due to the economies of scale inherent in a reticulated system.

Connected

A district that delivers accessible and integrated infrastructure, transport and communication systems which meet the needs of residents, businesses and visitors.

C1 Effective, efficient, safe and reliable infrastructure is provided and maintained.

Negative impacts on community well-being

Increasing demand requires that more water is extracted from the environment. Given the normally high rainfall experienced in Taranaki this is not considered to be a threat to sustainable supplies or to the natural environment in normal rainfall conditions. Summer demand in dry periods needs to be managed to ensure that uptake of water from the environment remains within the limits prescribed by each resource consent.

Pressure management is being gradually introduced, to assist in demand management through a reduction in excess consumption and water losses.

Facing the challenges – assumptions and risks

Assumptions

Demand for water will increase in line with any increase in population, growth in tourism and the expansion of the urban area through subdivision.
Customer demand has previously led to a Council-approved expansion of the rural water network (2004-2014) where rural customers aspired to have the same quality drinking water as urban customers. The Council in Community Plan 2009-2019 decided to curtail the capital funding of further expansion of the rural water network. The last year of such funding was 2009/10. Rural customers aspiring to have a water service may apply to the Council on the proviso that they fully fund any additional capital works required.
Assumptions for asset base lives were made consistent with the Council’s certified valuation as at 30 June 2008.
Unit cost assumptions adopted are the same as used during the certified valuation as at 30 June 2008 and were determined with reference to latest contracts, construction projects and supplier information.
A revised bulk water tariff for large consumers is included in revenue accrued from fees and charges as this applies to them.

Risks

Network failure through deferred maintenance or reduced maintenance expenditure.
Changes to environmental standards, or significant changes to current level of service, which may result in failure to achieve compliance or involve a significant cost to implement.
Stricter resource consent conditions, or reduced abstraction limits, on renewals on existing consents (e.g. New Plymouth Water Treatment Plant abstraction resource consent renewal due in 2021).
Contamination of raw water, which causes a significant public health risk to existing supplies.
Major drought that reduces the Council’s capacity to abstract water.
Possible loss of the infiltration gallery and water supply to Okato during heavy flooding of the Mangatete Stream.
Reduced preventative maintenance activities on non-critical assets causes complaints.

Managing risks

Risks associated with water treatment plant and equipment are reduced by regular inspection, up-to-date management and maintenance plans and the recruitment and retention of skilled staff.
Changes to standards can be managed by ensuring that the Council’s procedures and codes of practice are continually revised and ensuring the Council has input into the development of national standards.
The reduction of preventative maintenance activities on non-critical assets will allow priority funding to be applied to more critical assets, while having minimal impact on service levels to customers.
Changes to consent conditions or limits can be managed by ensuring good communication with the regulatory authority (Taranaki Regional Council) while concurrently implementing a demand management strategy.
Raw water contamination can be mitigated by continuous monitoring of water quality and ensuring that emergency procedures and sufficient emergency storage are in place.
The impact of a major drought can be mitigated by imposing water restrictions if necessary, and by reducing peak demands in the long-term through better demand and pressure management.
Investigation and exploration into a possible groundwater supply has been undertaken to identify an alternative source to the existing surface supply in Okato.

Levels of service and performance measures

The following levels of service and performance measures outline the objectives we will set and how we will measure our progress.

Service objective	Related Community Outcome(s)	Performance measures	Performance targets
Service objective	Related Community Outcome(s)	Performance measures	2010/11	2011/12
Ensure network has capacity to accommodate growth.	Connected 1 Secure and Healthy 2	The capacity of the system to meet residents’ needs is measured by total time water restrictions are in force in any year. Water restrictions are not to exceed target number of days in year.	7 days	7 days
Ensure network has capacity to accommodate growth.	Prosperous 5	Network has surplus capacity to encourage new industry and residential development. The measure for surplus capacity is that peak demand is always less than total supply capacity.	Peak demand is < 90% of plant capacity and within consented limits	Peak demand is < 90% of plant capacity and within consented limits
Ensure flow rate meets customer needs.	Connected 1	Flow rate meets stated levels of service for each customer group. Flow rate is to exceed a specified minima, measured as the percentage of properties with greater than the target flow rate at the point of supply, not including interruptions to supply. Minimum flow rates are: Urban: 40L/minute. Rural: 30L/minute (on demand). Rural: 1m³/day (restricted flow). Fire: As required by the NZ Fire Service Code of Practice (2003).	99.8% 100% 100% Achieved	99.8% 100% 100% Achieved
Ensure water pressure meets customer needs.	Connected 1	Pressure exceeds specified minima for each customer group. This is measured through an annual survey and calculated as the percentage of properties surveyed having greater than the minimum pressure for 95% of the time at the point of supply. The minimum pressures are: Urban properties: 300kPa. Rural properties: 200kPa.	98% 100%	98% 100%
Ensure water is safe to drink.	Secure and Healthy 2 & 8	Treated water meets The Drinking Water Standards for New Zealand (2005). Compliance is monitored against Priorities 1 and 2, which are classes with the highest potential risk to public health. In addition the treated water is to meet the voluntary improvement from “potable” (safe to drink) to “wholesome” (pleasant to drink).	Achieved No complaints about taste/odour	Achieved No complaints about taste/odour
Ensure water services meet residents’ satisfaction.	Secure & Healthy 2	Residents satisfaction, measured by the percentage who are either very, or fairly satisfied, with public water supply as measured in comparison with an average of similar sized, or “peer” local authorities (NRB Survey).	Exceeds peer group average (including ‘don’t know’ responses)	Exceeds peer group average (including ‘don’t know’ responses)
Ensure reliability of water supply meets customer expectations (interruptions not to exceed 24 hours in one year or no single interruption over eight hours).	Connected 1 Sustainable 1 & 2	Percentage of compliance.	100%	100%
Contractor complies with target response times for reactive maintenance and customer requests.	Connected 1	Percentage of compliance.	98%	98%
A significant proportion of the population has access to a safe, reliable and affordable water supply.	Connected 1	Dwellings serviced as a percentage of total occupied dwellings within the district.	91%	92%

FINANCIAL PLAN	LTCCP 2011/12 ($000)	Budget 2011/12 ($000)
OPERATIONS
Water activity expenditure	10,993	10,742
Water activity revenue	(4,562)	(4,254)
Net cost of operations	6,431	6,488

Appropriations and reserves
Depreciation unfunded/deferred	(689)	(1,115)
Transfer to reserves	0	225
Total appropriations and reserves	(689)	(890)

RATES REQUIREMENT FOR OPERATIONS	5,742	5,598

CAPITAL EXPENDITURE
Total renewals	1,957	2,119
Total improvements	373	531
Total loan repayments	991	981
Total capital expenditure	3,321	3,631

Capital funding
Corporate loan	(332)	(530)
Total capital funding	(332)	(530)

Net cost of capital activities	2,989	3,101

Appropriations and reserves
Transfer from depreciation reserves	(1,957)	(2,119)
Total appropriations and reserves	(1,957)	(2,119)

FUNDING REQUIREMENT FOR CAPITAL	1,032	982

RATES AND FUNDING REQUIREMENT
Rates requirement for operations	5,742	5,598
Funding requirement for capital	1,032	982
TOTAL RATES AND FUNDING REQUIREMENT	6,774	6,580