East Rotoiti – Rotoma Sewerage Scheme

Update 19 July 2024

Its been an incredibly busy time recently. We have focused on achieving the best results for you which has left little time for updates. Some work carries on as we continue to seek the best result for our community. The links and comments which follow should give you a good picture of the current public status of the scheme. If you have any questions please email them to: lrca@rotoiti.co.nz.

Rotorua Daily Post Article on the LTP Decision Meeting

The Final Rotorua District Council Long Term Plan

Answers received to LRCA’s Questions to the Council on Your Behalf Regarding Property Owner Payments

Update sent to Property Owners regarding payment from RLC

Online FAQ Answers for Capital repayment plan for properties connected to East Rotoiti Rotomā scheme

We note the following comments in the Daily Post LTP Decision Making Article

Rotorua Lakes Council adopts Long-Term Plan, sets average 11.4% rates rise

Rotorua Daily Post

27 Jun, 2024 08:02 AM

Of special interest to us were the comments made in support of the plan and our Rotoiti Rotoma sewerage scheme.

Tania Tapsell Comments:

Tapsell acknowledged the “heartfelt” submissions and presentations.

In her view: “It was incredibly challenging to see people from across our district … who were very upset or distressed at affordability issues and their concerns about past mismanagement, increasing costs and a lack of transparency.”

Councillor Lani Kereopa: Comments:

Kereopa said she supported the decision to ask central Government to reallocate $2.5m of Be Better Off funding from the Aquatic Centre to wastewater or core infrastructure work.

“To help support our families who may lose their home as a direct result of the [East Rotoiti - Rotomā sewerage scheme]”.

It was at a cost to children “who deserved hydro slides, and our elderly who deserve warm waters to bathe in”, she said.

Elected members earlier in the month voted unanimously to pour $5.424m more into the scheme to spread a greater share of the cost across all ratepayers, costing them an extra $15.50 a year for 25 years, and reducing the upfront cost for households in the scheme.

“Budget blowouts” around the scheme had horrendous impacts, she said.

“Not only financially, but the stress, anger and feelings of hopelessness and betrayal felt by those communities is unacceptable.”

She said there was a community desire for a “thorough investigation into how mismanagement [of the scheme] could occur” and she supported this.

She supported approving the plan as she believed it would be worse for the communities if she did not.

Council chief executive Andrew Moraes previously said the standard of experience customers received through the sewerage project was “far below what I believe council and council staff would like to provide”.

The reasons why were complex, he said, and not always clearly communicated. Aggravating factors, such as cost, were outside council control, Moraes said.

Update 11 May 2024

LRCA LTP Submissions Are In

Thank you all for your phenomenal support.

We had over 130 submissions supporting LRCA on our web site.

You can read our submissions here:

* Sewerage Submission here. For a quick synopsis of our submission we suggest you read our "Recommendation" on Page 21.

* Your submissions in support of our Sewerage Submissions here.

* Our General Submission on the rest of the long term plan here.

We now move on to the verbal submissions in support of these written submissions and lobbying councillors.

If you have suggestions for us please email them to lrca@rotoiti.co.nz or complete our online form for supporting our submissions here.

Update 28 April 24

 

Team Progress Update

Good progress has been made making our position clear. Key actions have been:

United Community

Ngati Pikiao, East Rotoiti, Tamatea St, and Rotoma communities have united against the proposals in the long term plan.

Rotoiti public consultation meeting

Since our last update the community has delivered a very clear message to council that the long-term proposal is completely unacceptable. On the 15th April the record crowd of well over 200 locals made it very clear that:

* For large sections of our community $14 to $15,000, as was originally advised, is all they can afford

* Property owners have agreed to installation based on an expected cost of around $14 or $15,000 originally advised and they will not pay any more.

* That the council should take responsibility for project mis-management that meant the scheme went over forecast total cost by $20 million - around 60%.

You can hear a recording of the meeting here.

Media support

Attention grabbing articles have kept our campaign in the public eye:

* First in the Rotorua Daily Post, “$14k then, up to $88k now: Lake Locals Furious at Horrendous Blowout”, 17 April and

* Richard Prebble’s column in the Herald, “Beware of Government Subsidies Close to Home”, 24 April

Key Meetings

Have been held with Doug Leeder, Chair of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Todd McClay, member for Rotorua and Minister of Trade, Agriculture, Forestry and Hunting & Fishing. Both have offered support. We also met with Tania Tapsell, and her new CEO, Andrew Moraes, on Friday. The mayor is fully aware of our concerns, particularly that the situation we have been put in does not reflect well on the Council’s LTP vision of “A better Rotorua for ALL,” and risks jeopardising their desire to “Build Rotorua’s reputation! A satisfactory remedy must be found.

Request Council Notifies all Property Owners

We have requested that the Council advise all affected property owners of the contents related to the sewerage system in the LTP - given that many may not be aware of what’s planned.

Contact with Local Councillors

The Councillors will vote on the long term plan - we are talking to them and you should too - call them, (or email them), and politely let them know your thoughts - following the public meeting they are very aware they have a problem for which a better remedy must be found.

LRCA and Community Response

It is important we all play our part to get the best result for our community - numbers of submissions matter!

VERY IMPORTANT

Make your own Submission on the Councils Long Term Plan

We recommend that you use this Council on line form and if you can be present, please make sure you tick yes to: "I wish to present my submission publicly in front of your Councillors at a hearing”. It will add important weight to our case if you can be present.

Submissions to date have probably focused on the wrongs which need to be remedied.

Submissions from now on should also include comments on the Council’s need to remedy their wrongs by increasing rates to the whole community through increasing the “Lakes Enhancement Fund” or other targeted rates to better balance the Council/Ratepayer contribution to improve lake water quality, with our local community’s contribution.

It is not, “A better Rotorua for ALL”, when even though we all benefit from better lake water quality:

* Our small community, (770 people), is contributing between $10m and $30m, (or $15,000 to $45,000 each),

* when the rest of the community, (27,000 people), is contributing just $1.16m to $2.7m, (or $49 to $100 each)!

N.B. The Vital Signs research in 2018, commissioned by our District & Regional Councils, found that the Rotorua district's community valued “Environment Wellbeing” equal 1st in importance to them and the stand out 1st Environment priority was to “Improve the quality of lakes and rivers”.

Also, you will be interested to hear that Niwa research in 20-21 found that Rotoiti is the most fished lake in NZ with 33,000 angler days pa.

(Note - submissions must be in by the Monday 6th May - now extended to 5pm Friday 10th May - don't leave it till the last moment)

You can make more than one submission, but if you do, you must indicate that you have made more than one submission and advise the date you made the previous submission.

Thank you for your support!

LRCA East Rotoiti - Rotoma Sewerage Scheme Sub Committee.

Update - December 23

Rotorua Lakes Council's latest sewerage update has just been released. They advise that 80% of all on-property installations are in place for Rotoma and East Rotoiti.

The estimated completion date is now June 2024.

The full update including information from Rotorua Lakes Council, Ngāti Pikiao Cultural Impacts Team, Whenua Māori Project and Fulton Hogan can be read here.


Update - November 23

Our periodic emailed newsletters and website have continued to provide updates on the progress towards completion of the sewerage scheme. Major community concerns over the mounting increase in overall capital costs (currently believed to be in the region of $53 million) have continued, with Rotorua Lakes Council (RLC) still unable to provide firm commitments.

To summarise the most recent information relating to the scheme:-

282 Rotoiti installations completed to date with the aim to complete 340 properties by December 2023.

Additional properties to be completed in Jan/Feb 2024 as legal hurdles are resolved with property owners.

Marae installations should be completed under RLC Maintenance division in June 2024 as design work is under way currently with Iwi to identify the system configuration required to meet Marae ‘super events’.

Whenua Māori installations are ‘progressing steadily’ with site visits to affected properties and Locality Plans (LPs) being drafted. Completed documentation is being lodged with the Māori Land Court.

Significant impacts on project costs have occurred from high lake levels. At least 40-60% of all installations now require de-watering and sheet pile protection versus earlier estimate of 10%.

Power fluctuations have been found in the electrical supply to Rotoiti, triggering a low power voltage and activating alarms. UNISON is installing another three transformers.

Council has acknowledged the cost concern to property owners. They note that the final gross cost of the scheme is well canvassed as are the driving factors for that. Initially the Crown made an allocation of about $11.5 million for East Rotoiti based on the concept estimates of 2014 that were structured with a 30% uncertainty. Since then, a significant level of costs have been introduced with subsequent resource consent conditions, and the non-inclusion of construction inflation.

In 2021 the actual costs of East Rotoiti were further assessed taking into account the consent conditions, the on-site pre-treatment systems, the Treatment Plant and the outcomes of the tenders. It was established that the gross costs would be around $43 million (at that time). Based on that RLC made a further application to the Crown to match 50% of the revised cost which included a proposal to transfer $10 million of Crown Deed funding from the underspent Land Incentives Scheme to the RRSS. This was intended to be repaid by 2032 via an increase to the existing Lakes Enhancement Rate targeted to all District ratepayers.

The proposal was subsequently approved by Environment Minister Parker conditional upon Council reimbursing the Land Incentives programme when these funds were required. Disappointingly his approval was withdrawn earlier this year due to apparent concerns over the repayment options. Rotorua Te Arawa Lakes Strategy Group, as the coordinating body towards improving lakes water quality, are currently pursuing a reversal of this latter decision.

In the meantime, RLC has agreed to put forward a proposal to progressively increase the Lakes Enhancement Rate as part of deliberations on the draft 2024-34 LTP to help fund the shortfall on the RRSS in order to prevent the cost per property of blowing out to $35,000. This would presumably coincide with a review of the long-standing RLC funding support of $1,500 per property given the significant cost increase of infrastructure over the past decade. In the course of these deliberations, Council will consider the full actual costs of the scheme minus available subsidies and decide what to charge as the Capital targeted rate.  The community will then be consulted on these decisions.

 

The scheme has clearly been challenging because of its history, the Environment Court Decisions of 2012, the strict Resource Consent conditions, the market conditions and the difficulties presented more recently by the weather and lake levels. On the positive side sewerage reticulations have proved to be very effective (especially with the weather patterns) in diverting untreated sewerage from septic tanks seeping into the lakes. The reticulations carried out in the last 15 years are now preventing at least 2.5million litres of sewerage getting into the lakes every day. They are increasingly costly but over a 50 year horizon should prove to be a good investment for and by the communities.

LRCA will continue to monitor the decision making and success of efforts to secure funding of scheme cost increases, and the final determination of property costs by Councillors. If necessary LRCA will lobby with other affected parties to achieve an equitable outcome.

Update - August 23

Comprehensive Update from RLC

A series of questions were recently submitted to Senior Project Engineer Gerhard Mostert, and Stavros Michael, Deputy Chief Executive Infrastructure at Rotorua Lakes Council. The usual very prompt reply was received.

Q1. Number of systems now installed?

264 installed

Q2. Number scheduled, and number yet to be scheduled?

40 programmed, 20 to obtain Building consents & 12 handed over to BoPRC

Q3. What does ‘handed over to BoPRC mean?

This is the number of properties where the owner does not want to have a Biolytix system installed, for a variety of reasons. The Regional Council is responsible for the new OSET (onsite effluent treatment) rules. They will dictate what steps will be taken on a case-by-case basis

Q4. Progress with Marae and Kura installs?

Waiiti Marae is scheduled for installation within 3-4 weeks. The balance of the Marae's will be scheduled for next year June. We need to obtain enough data on usage to better design the systems to install for the Marae's.

Q5. Progress with Māori land issues, and expected resolution date?

There are about 19 properties that have received the Building consents, however we cannot proceed with installation until the Māori road way situation is resolved. The balance of about 70 properties is sitting with the Māori Land court. We are slowly working thru them and have just over 30 signed up. Once all are signed up we will make a submission in bulk to the Court for a decision.

Q6. What extra cost has that added to the overall scheme cost?

Not answered

STOP PRESS

Council discussed under urgency the withdrawal of Minister funding approval, and the intention of Council to increase lake enhancement rate paid by all ratepayers in the next 10 year plan as the mechanism to repay a loan from the unused fund, in order to prevent the cost per property to blow out to $35,000.

Good to see the Mayor concerned about affordability.

More information from the meeting here.

Q7. Have any land issues been resolved and installs completed?

There has been a small number of Māori land owners that agreed to the installation and received the systems.

Q8. Has incidence of alarm activation continued or been resolved - what is the cause?

I have been in contact with UNISON on the matter. We found that there are power fluctuations in the supply to Rotoiti. Thereby triggering a low power voltage, which triggers the Alarms. UNISON is busy installing another 3 transformers:

Project 206883 – Install a new transformer at Pole 169324 (At the frontage of Lake Okataina Road) – Design commencement August 2023, Construct Oct 2023.

Project 206884 – Install a new transformer at Pole 236428 (In the vicinity of 44/42 Tamatea Street, Rotorua) – Design commencement June 2023, Construct August 2023.

Project 201387 – Install a new pad mount transformer (At the frontage of 5 Wharetoroa Drive) – this is designed and in construction now.

Q9. What is the current status of the funding issues with Minister of Environment. Is the loan approach for earlier cost increases still being pursued with the Minister, and if so what is the progress with that?

The Council, with support from the Te Arawa Lakes Trust Board, continues to pursue a change to the minister’s decision to withhold $10mil of funding support. The matter will be discussed again by the whole Rotorua Te Arawa Lakes Strategy Group on the 22 September with a view of a collective letter to the Minister.

Q10. If not, why? What is RLC doing to fund that shortfall, and further cost increases due to weather and other delays etc?

Noting that, the Council has resolved yesterday (the 23rd) to include in its upcoming LTP (2024-34) incremental changes to the current Lakes Enhancement Rate (paid by all ratepayers in the District) to compensate for that decision by the Minister (if it remains unchanged) or to use such funds to reinvest in the Land Incentives Scheme. So one way or another the $10mil will be recovered to help the Rotoiti/Rotoma property owners.

There is still the matter of greater costs because of the weather and installation delays (lake levels/Marae/Maori Whenua) that the Council will consider in its Long Term Plan and whether it wishes to increase further its own funding support (currently $1500 per property) to a higher level. I am sure the local community will be making submissions to that effect during the next year’s LTP consultation process.

Q11. There is a rumour circulating that Council is not progressing the scheme due to the funding matter. Please confirm if this is correct?

No that is incorrect. Council is keen to complete the project as soon as possible taking into account the issues I outlined above (weather, lake levels, Maori whenua, Marae). We are all working to that effect.

Read Rotorua Lakes Council East Rotoiti Sewerage community update HERE.

Update - December 22

Gerhard Mostert, (Contracts Engineer, Infrastructure, Rotorua Lakes Council), comments as follows:

It is great to see a community recognising the importance of protecting the health of the waterways for use and enjoyment of generations to come.

Many challenges were faced in 2022, COVID-19 continued to have an impact and wet weather. 147 properties have received their Biolytix systems. A further 92 properties are scheduled for installation. The Tamatea Street public toilet block will be completed during December 2022.

Landowners can make arrangements for site visits to discuss the installation and location of Biolytix systems by emailing our new project team member, Leo Morley from WSP, at Leo.Awata‐Morley@wsp.com.

We are also excited to have launched our video of the scheme which provides the community with further information about what we are achieving. You can view it here.

The information booklet taking property owners through the pre‐installation process and including key contacts is available here.

We thank the Contract management team, Fulton Hogan and WSP, who have worked hard throughout this year to make this progress.

Our next update will be in February 2023.

Gerhard Mostert’s full letter is available here.

Update - October 22

LRCA recently submitted Sewerage scheme questions to Council and received a very prompt response

Q: Please provide brief summary of install progress in 2022, recognising challenge of Covid and rainfall. In particular, predicted total installs by end of year.

A: We are interacting with 68 properties to obtain Building consents, 85 Building consents are approved and awaiting installations with another 123 units installed as of 20 October 2022.  We are aiming to complete a further 50 – 60 sites before Xmas (including the Tamatea St toilet blocks)

Q: Please provide Install plan for 2023

A: Continue with the state highway properties (Gisborne Point), Commence the non-residential sites (eg: schools over the school holidays) and the remaining Tamatea Street from February onwards.

Q: Current prediction on completion date of installation.

A: Contractually May 2023, however due to Whenua Maori property delays thru the Maori land court the project might extend to July/ August 2023

Q: Best indication available on per property cost estimate

A: The rate for the scheme has not been finalised yet, thereby we do not have an accurate estimate as to what the overall cost per property is at this time. This will be discussed by Council when the project nears its completion and a decision will be made on the final level of repayment rate.

Q: Please update on progress with Whenua Māori land issue and expected resolution.

A: Discussions continue regarding individual blocks, with owners and trustees of those blocks, effected by the scheme.  Responses so far have been largely positive. Certain technical issues were recently heard by the Maori Land Court and advice is yet to be issued.

Q: We receive feedback from some owners with whom agreement has been reached but don’t know where they sit in the queue.

A: As mentioned we have 85 properties scheduled for installations and as such cannot guaranteed fixed dates for those installations until we are confident of the date (1 month before). Keeping in mind delays due to weather has a significant ripple effect throughout schedules.

Q: There is also the matter of property owners who Council have not connected with yet. We are happy to encourage them to make contact with council or Fulton Hogan if you let me know who you want them to contact.

A: Landowners can make arrangements for site visits to discuss the installation and location of Biolytix systems by emailing our new project team member Leo Morley from WSP at Leo.Awata‐Morley@wsp.com. Alternatively, the Engineers Representative can be contacted at gerhardus.mostert@rotorualc.nz, 027 214 1820

Q. We hear a lot of positive feedback on the installs and standard of reinstatement around the tanks, We also receive a few comments about punga fences and drives not being reinstated. Winter won’t have helped in some cases, but perhaps going back after leaving site might sometimes be missed?

A: To date we are completely caught up on reinstatement delays. We struggled with grass seeding, as it did not take due to the weather conditions. As such, we opted to leave some sites raw or to implement gravel as an interim solution.

Update - August 22

RLC advise that despite the ongoing challenges, progress is tracking well with 60 installations completed and 76 properties booked for installation. Our prioritisation of Biolytix system installs for the next few months will be on completing those that have been booked.

While installations are underway, staff are continuing to meet with land owners to obtain archaeological consents and finalise individual locality plans.

Three Cultural Site Monitors are monitoring the on-site system installations at Kōmuhumuhu – Gisborne Pt. Ongoing support is being provided to Rotorua Lakes Council in the preparation of Heritage NZ authority applications for Kōmuhumuhu, Te Tuarae (Taurua Marae area), Matarēhua Pā (Waione and Moose Lodge area).

The Whenua Maori Project is progressing slowly but moving in a positive direction. Application has been made to the Māori Land Court for a Judicial Conference and receipt of our application has been notified. Rotorua Lakes Council is now awaiting guidance from the Māori Land Court on next steps.

Fulton Hogan advise that the poor winter weather has had a noticeable effect on our operations. Throughout June, 20 of the available 30 days recorded a measure of rainfall. To reduce the impact to lawn areas, we continue to utilise our ground protection mats and geofabric cloth. Grass reinstatement is near on unachievable through this period of the year. Fulton Hogan are committed to returning to these affected properties through the spring period to complete the lawn reinstatement.

Their focus has recently shifted to completing installs on those properties that have no groundwater challenge. These are predominantly properties away from the lakefront around the Gisborne Point/Kōmuhumuhu area and along State Highway 30. In the coming summer season (October – April) period, our main focus will be to return to low lying properties or closer to the lakefront.

RLC's full report is available here.

Biolytix Installation Progress, Open Day & Booklet - December 21

Catch up with the latest info on the installation of Biolytix sewerage systems at East Rotoiti. Including an Open Day on 29th January 2022.

Here are progress updates for the Rotoiti Rotomā Sewerage Scheme from Rotorua Lakes Council, Ngāti Pikiao Cultural Impacts Team and Fulton Hogan including information on an open day planned for Auckland Anniversary weekend – 29 January 2021.

Also available is this informative Biolytix pre-installation Information Booklet.

Update July 2021 - Biolytix Chosen

We have been in regular contact over a number of years with the Lakes Council Infrastructure team to obtain updates and have posted the information we obtained for members. This being necessary due to very limited communications from Council.

Due to these ongoing proactive requests from LRCA, we received an invite recently to meet with Council and the Iwi Liaison group, whom Council have liaised with over meeting the Cultural obligations required by the resource consent for the scheme.

We were advised the progress with obtaining the full Council approval of the tender and the timetable for Council to despatch the letter to property owners confirming that approval and the decision of which system has been chosen.

That letter was received in the post on 19 July - copy here - and it advises that the Biolytix pre-treatment on-site system has been confirmed by Councillors. The letter provides other background information, including some numbers around scheme costs, planned inclusion of Rotoehu if funding is received, and that the final cost per property will not be struck until all costs are known. We sought estimated timeframe for confirmation of the agreed works programme, but that is not available yet.

It also refers to a further Community meeting, possibly at Labour weekend. LRCA will keep pressure on for that meeting to proceed. Installation should be underway by then, and the Community will want more information.

We have requested involvement in any periodical meetings to monitor progress with the installation programme, to represent the Community.

Update 8 October 2020 - Action Plan

LRCA has regularly sought improved communication from Rotorua Lakes Council regarding the sewerage scheme at East Rotoiti.

On 8 October LRCA received confirmation from Infrastructure Management that the tender invitations for the onsite pretreatment sewerage systems were sent to the 6 shortlisted main contractors the previous week, with the deadline in mid November.

They predict that the evaluation team will have reviewed tenders before Christmas. They plan to conduct community consultation about the preferred option in January during the holiday period.

They have agreed to work with Phill Thomas (Lake Community Board) and LRCA in regards to planning the Community Consultation.

At the conclusion  of consultation, management will submit their recommendation to councillors for the pretreatment sewerage system to be installed on east Rotoiti properties.

Update 14 September 2020

Rotorua Lakes Council’s latest East Rotoiti Sewerage update of 14 September 2020 advises that tenders for an on-site wastewater pre-treatment system to be installed at properties in east Rotoiti, will be undertaken over the next 3 months.

Following appointment of a contractor and system Council will engage directly with property owners regarding site location and other relevant site matters. This can only be done after it is known what system will be installed.Properties will then gradually be connected to the Rotoiti network which has now been largely completed. The contractor undertaking this work has now demobilised from site.

With regard to the onsite system that will be installed the council advises that: “Council is yet to tender the on-site systems for the Rotoiti area. Only when that tender process is complete and a supplier appointed can Council discuss with property owners details of on-site arrangements”.

A complicating issue for the council will be that for a number of multiple ownership properties the owners can not be easily identified and without the owners permission council cannot install pipes on these properties. This will no doubt cause additional delays in the completion of the installations for some multiple ownership properties until owner approval can be obtained and thus the overall completion of the project.

The full update is available here.

Update 18 August 2020

LRCA have been concerned at the lack of communication from RLC on progress with on-site installation of septic tanks for east Rotoiti. Council has previously advised it was about to invite tenders but that has still not occurred. 

We recently met with Phill Thomas, chair of community board and LRCA followed up with an email to management of Infrastructure team at council. A prompt reply was received from General Manager Stavros Michael, providing update information, and committing to ongoing communications. These two emails are now published on the Sewerage section of our website.

Also published is the report recently presented by Stavros to the Rotorua and Te Arawa Lakes Strategy group, seeking additional funding to meet some of the cost escalation between the 2017 estimate of $34m, and the final project costs. This amount will not be known until the project is completed. The meeting approved the exploration of this funding from the residual settlement deed funds.

A short update on Rotorua Lakes Council (RLC) activity that relates to lake water quality to the Rotorua Te Arawa Lakes Strategy Group is also available.

LRCA will continue to interact with Council to obtain regular updates, and to meet with Council at the appropriate time to ensure we ascertain the factors that will influence the selection of the type of system that will be recommended to full Council for approval. Most particularly to understand the cost implications of options.

In its July 2020 updates the Rotorua Lakes Council advised that:

Tenders for an on-site wastewater pre-treatment system to be installed at properties in east Rotoiti, will be undertaken over the next 3 months.

Over the next two years, as engagement with home and landowners in the Rotoiti area continues, the new on-site systems will be installed and connected to the new reticulation network.

The capital contribution will not be levied until the scheme is completed and full costs known. This will likely be in two years time (2022).

Links to the RLC Updates:

Project Update - Protecting Waterways

Lets Talk - Rotoiti Rotoma Sewerage Scheme

Update May 2020

2019 has seen the Rotoma reticulation (network of pipes) being completed around August. This involved 22km of pipe work being laid from Matahi Spit to the Wastewater Treatment Plant located on Haumingi 9828 land behind Emery's Store. During that month, Rotorua Lakes Council conducted an official commissioning of the plant which included a pohlri at Taurua Marae and tour of the new facilities by those attending. The plant is designed to limit the amount of nutrients entering the lake and will treat wastewater to a very high standard before it is discharged to land.

The majority of Rotoma properties have now been connected to the network via their on-site STEP (Septic Tank Effluent Pumping) systems and are operating to the new scheme. The Rotoiti component of the reticulation project is currently underway and will extend to Tapuaekura Marae at the end of Curtis Road. The completion of this phase will see a total of 47.5km of pipe work having been laid. Work on identifying the preferred pre-treatment system for Rotoiti is progressing and intended to be finalised during 2020. The overall scheme has the capacity to expand the service area and will include the Lake Rotoehu community if an acceptable funding model can be secured.

As already known, there is currently a substantial capital budget of $35.3 million for the existing scheme which has been largely facilitated by Government, Regional and District subsidies. Around two-thirds of this has been expended to date. A total of 770 properties have been identified for connection to the scheme and there is a currently proposed targeted capital contribution from each individual property of $14,100 (GST inclusive) or $1,080 per annum over 25 years. This targeted rate will be applied following overall completion of the scheme (2020/21 ).In addition, once property owners are connected, they will be charged an annual maintenance fee (currently $540 GST inclusive) to cover operational costs which have been equalised across all reticulated properties in the District.

It has been accepted that these costs will be extremely challenging for many of our affected residents. Your Association in conjunction with the Lakes Community Board is continuing to seek possible options in reducing the amount of capital repayment. It should also be noted that low income earners could qualify for a partial rebate of overall rates. Inquiries may be made to Rotorua Lakes Council.

Lake Rotoiti Sewerage Schemes - A Brief History

Concerns over deteriorating lake water quality grew amongst Rotoiti residents during the 1970s and 1980s and continuing research improved local knowledge and understanding as to the causes. It became evident that septic disposal systems being used in our lakeside communities were to varying degrees a contributing factor towards this gradual degradation. Ensuing and persistent calls by LRRRA over several years eventually persuaded Rotorua District Council (RDC) to engage an external consultant group to prepare feasibility studies for 13 small communities within the District, including those around Rotoiti, and provide specific reports for each along with costing options for sewerage reticulation.

The next stage would be community consultation. Mourea/Okawa Bay and Okere/Otaramarae were equal second on the priority list and due to be consulted in 1997. Separate schemes for Gisborne Point and Hinehopu were scheduled for a later date. Council policy at the time was to fund new schemes 100 percent from general rates and given the ‘high capital costs’ implementation would likely be several years down the track.

As it turned out, 1998 brought about the revelation that the costs provided in the preliminary Consultants Report had been drastically under-estimated and current costings were prohibitively high meaning alternative options would need to be explored. A revised policy to deal with small community sewerage problems was now under development and clarification of responsibilities and funding implications would be addressed with Regional Council and Local Government NZ.

Notwithstanding further urgent calls from the lake communities, it would be another six years before commencement of the first of our lakeside schemes in Mourea/Okawa Bay. In 2004, RDC prepared a Statement of Proposal & Information Pack for Eastern Sewerage Schemes (Rotokawa to Otaramarae) detailing comprehensive costings. New policies would provide subsidised funding from the Health and/or Environment Ministries along with specific targeted contributions from BoP Regional Council and RDC. The balance of total capital costs after provision of subsidies would be borne by property owners within the scheme boundaries. Following resolute debate and submissions from LRRRA, RDC agreed that annual operating costs would be equalised across all reticulated properties within the Rotorua district. The Okere and Otaramarae scheme was completed in 2008 leaving the East Rotoiti communities to follow at some stage in the future.

The provision of sewerage reticulation to these communities was included in the RDC Long Term Council Plan of 2009-19. Proposals for the scheme to commence in Rotomā were contained in a Report to RDC Works Committee in March 2010 which summarised community submissions and included the implementation of a local sewer reticulation network and trunk main connecting to a wastewater treatment plant and disposal field located between Lake Rotomā and Lake Rotoiti intended to serve both Rotomā and East Rotoiti communities.

During the course of 2010, RDC newsletters were sent to East Rotoiti residents with updated information and the adoption of a recommendation to progress the detailed planning and design of the Rotoiti scheme to take in areas between Curtis Road and Morehu Road (Lake Rotoehu) and scheduled to be completed and operational by end of 2012.

More details emerged during 2011 which set alarm bells ringing amongst local residents. Firstly confirmation that the proposed treatment plant would be situated off Manawahe Road only some 500 metres from Lake Rotomā and an admission that the siting would allow nutrients to leach back into the lake. Secondly, the projected cost to individual property owners had ballooned out to around $18,000 which was clearly prohibitive and unaffordable for many households. Further RDC conducted meetings seemingly failed to acknowledge that, although a majority supported upgraded disposal, unreasonable costs would not be acceptable. Despite this, Consent applications proceeded without amendment and, following Hearings, were granted by BoP Regional Council.

In late 2011, appeals from Ngāti Pikiao and Ngāti Makino iwi representatives along with Rotomā/Rotoehu Ratepayers Association were lodged with the Environment Court citing both inadequate protection and cultural insensitivity in respect of the location and discharge from the proposed Treatment Plant. LRCA, as an original submitter, opted to become party to the appeals suggesting that the best means of resolution could be achieved through further mediation. In the event, failure to resolve iwi appeals through mediation and, unable to find an alternative treatment site following the Court’s invitation, RDC decided to surrender the existing consent in late 2012.

Renewed planning for the Scheme began in 2013. In 2014, an independent community group, the Rotoiti Rotomā Sewerage Steering Committee (RRSSC), was implemented by RDC to explore future options. This group comprised representative members from the two communities including technical advisors and a cultural impact team. From here, a preferred option was developed based on factors such as cultural preference, resilience in the event of natural disasters along with technical and social requirements. This recommendation was included as a Discussion Document in RDC’s Long Term Council Plan 2015-25.

Further progress made during the course of 2015 saw a local treatment site behind Emery’s Store, Rotoiti on Haumingi 9B3B Trust land being secured, work commencing on detailed plant design and Resource Consent requirements including cultural assessments. Locations for a Biolytix trial in Rotoiti were also finalised. An information pamphlet covering comprehensive details of the proposed scheme including approximate timelines was delivered to all mailboxes in the scheme area in December of that year.

More Information can be found on the Rotorua Lakes Council website.