​​​​​​13​   Septage Disposal Facilities

13.1       Scheme Summary

13.2       Key Issues

The following key issues are associated with the Septage Disposal Facilities.  A list of district wide issues are located in 5Waters Activity Management Plan: Volume 1.

Table 13‑1 Septage Sites Scheme Issues

​13.3       Overview & History

The Ardlui and Bleak House Road septage disposal facilities were commissioned during 1996.  The sites were developed to allow disposal of domestic septic tank sludge for the Darfield and Hororata areas.  Two other sites were also investigated, Greenpark and Bealey, but were not developed due to land ownership issues and community resistance. 

The primary purpose of the septage disposal sites is to allow the controlled discharge of septage and the dewatering of the septage, to facilitate the destruction of harmful bacteria.  The original consent allowed dried sludge to be removed after two years and either disposed off-site or spread evenly across the site to a maximum of 400mm.  However, this is not now allowed unless the sludge is of Class Aa Biosolids. 

The ability to continue use of the sites is limited by heavy metal concentration build-up.  Without effective mixing in the ground or the ground reaching consented maximum levels council should find alternative options for community disposal. 

The Councils property team manage the site lease and Environment Canterbury reporting.  The facilities are reported in the 5 waters AMP due to the nature of the site.

The sites were decommissioned 2016/17.​​

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​Figure 13‑1 Scheme Map

13.4       System Capacity

The Ardlui facility received on average 1,121m³/year   (32%) and the Bleak House facility receives an average of 2,400m³/year (68%).  The Ardlui facility receives only domestic septage, while the Bleak House facility receives on average 76% household domestic, 13% commercial domestic and 11% public toilets septage. 

13.5       Resource Consents

The Septage sites have a number of resource consents. Table 13‑2 shows the discharge permitted by the resource consents for this scheme.

Table 13‑2 Resource Consents

13.6       Funding Program

The 10 year budgets for Septage Disposal Facilities are shown by Table 12‑12 and Figure 12‑14. Budgets are split into expenditure, renewals, projects and capital projects.

All figures are ($) not adjusted for CPI “inflation".  They are calculated on historical data, and population growth where relevant.

Table 13‑3 Septage Disposal Budget Summary

An explanation of the categories within the budgets are as follows below:

• Expenditure consists of operation and maintenance costs;
• Renewals are replacement of assets which are nearing or exceeded their useful life;
• Projects are investigations, decisions and planning activities which exclude capital works; and
• Capital projects are activities involving physical works.
  

There are two major projects for the Septage Sites in the LTP budget.

Table 13‑4 Key Projects

* LoS refers to Level of Service; G refers to Growth

The list of district wide projects can be found in 5Waters Activity Management Plan: Volume 1.

​Discussion on Projects

Projects have been determined based on their:

• Relevance to the scheme
• Requirement to be completed under legislation
• Ability to bring the scheme up to or maintain the Level of Service required under council's Asset Management Policy. 

Many projects are jointly funded by more than one scheme and activity.  Each scheme pays a pro-rata share only, equivalent to the number of connections.

Discussion on Capital and Projects

Where relevant, Capital (Levels of Service) and Capital (Growth) projects have been included in the scheme financial details. 

Levels of Service Projects and growth splits have been provided to ensure the costs of population driven works are clear.