Metering decision is up to the four cities

The controversial question of whether to install household water meters is a decision for city councils not Greater Wellington Regional Council, says GWRC chair Fran Wilde.

"The debate will be at local level. Metering has to be the decision of territorial local authorities; we can't tell them what to do," she told reporters at a recent briefing. As the bulk water supplier to city clients, "all (the GWRC) has said is that we need to save some water. If we don't, we have to build a dam - quickly."

The regional council "triggered" the debate "because there's a need to take the issues seriously. If city residents don't save water somehow, we'll need a new dam and water costs will go up. I think people understand that."

GWRC has set a standard of sufficient water supply year round to meet a one-in-50-year drought. Due to population growth, we're breaking that standard.

In late February last year, water storage had dropped so low, GWRC was preparing to advise the region's four cities that a total ban on irrigation (garden watering) should be introduced on a Monday. Sprinklers had already been banned several weeks earlier.

However, there was rain on the Sunday, and the total ban wasn't needed.

Murray Kennedy, GWRC's divisional manager of water supply, parks and forests, says during that "bad situation" last year, the water conservation message being promoted "did have a noticeable effect". People cut back on their water use, though some were sceptical about the need.

"Perhaps it would have been interesting to see what happened (to demand) if the irrigation ban had gone on."

While we're now moving into wetter months, debate about water issues may not ease. GWRC is still gathering research in preparation for making a decision on whether to put in a resource consent application for the right to take more water from the Hutt River at Kaitoke weir. Bubbling on is debate on the need/timing for a new dam on the Whakatikei River (estimated cost $142 million), shorter term options such as tapping the Upper Hutt aquifer and/or increasing storage in the Stuart Macaskill twin storage lakes at Te Marua, or whether the tool of direct 'pay for what you use' (household meters - estimated cost $70m) will dampen demand to an extent the huge expense of a dam can be postponed.

Mr Kennedy says an overall Water Strategy document is still being prepared. It will probably be released in two parts. One document would explore the "high level" issues: do we go for the economic benefits of living as a region "rich" in quality water supply, "or do we keep as much water in the river as possible"? A second document would describe the "nuts and bolts" of how we pursue the options.

Mr Kennedy expects it will be another two or three months before the draft stategy is released.

Wellington City is further way from the water collection/treatment plants in the Hutt Valley, and therefore presumably more expensive to supply. We asked if that's reflected in the regional council's bulk supply charges.

Water supply manager Murray Kennedy said of the proposed water supply levy for 2009/10 ($23.4 million), only about 18% are variable costs from the three treatment plants that can be used to calculate marginal costs of production: electricity ($2.5m), chemicals ($1.67m), waste disposal (i.e.disposal of the organic material taken out of the water, $140,000).

He points out that if it costs double the amount of electricity to pump water all the way to Wellington in comparison to supply Hutt City, that's a portion of only 11% of total costs. "So we're not into big figures." He adds that 20% of the region's water comes from the Wainuiomata treatment plant (17-18% of that to Wellington City), and - ironically - it's gravity fed to the capital, whereas it has to be pumped to feed Wainuiomata's reservoirs.

There are depreciation costs for the piping network, but whatever higher cost that might be for Wellington is not calculated/reflected in the bulk charge.

Mr Kennedy says the system is operated (and charged for) as an integrated network.  If one part of it falls over for any reason, supply is maintained from another part.

He didn't mention it, if Hutt Valley residents started to push hard on recovering extra costs of supplying water to Wellington and Porirua, those cities might have something to say on the amount of their rates that go into paying for flood protection in the Hutt Valley.

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