Public must get involved in debate

I thought that this month I’d discuss the vexed is sue of the wastewater outfall that has had many debates over the past few months.

Some issues are hugely critical and should be considered in the full spotlight of public involvement.

What we do with our wastewater in future is one such issue.

This Council has to apply to the regional council, Environment Canterbury, for a discharge permit. Over the past four to five years we have be en investigating the options in front of us regarding treatment of our waste.

A public advisory committee of local interest groups came up with a report, which considered several methods of treatment for our waste. Our Council then received this report and we reduced our options to two possibilities.

Here I think we started to get some huge debate on matters that may have had different starting points.

The advisory committee made 10 recommendations. We agreed to nine of them and then the full Council debated whether or not we should go for the outfall at sea or for further treatment and continue discharging into the Estuary.

The main choice is between spending more money on treatment and putting clean water into the Estuary, or treating to a lower level and put ting "dirty water" out to sea through an expensive pipeline.

We chose the higher treatment option.

When various individuals started making statements in the media I started to wonder whether we had got things badly wrong. I went back and read all of the papers we considered at Council and spoke to various members of the Working Party and staff at this Council.

The proposal we have applied for will improve the quality of treatment by 25 times the cur rent standard. The standard of quality is through the roof compared with what hap pens at present.

My key point is not what we have applied for or whether or not we are wrong. The key point is we have to get it right.

Our forbears acted in a very conservative and thoughtful manner and we must do likewise. We must not argue this is sue on a personality basis. It must not divide our community. The main point for us now is the next process.

The permit to grant a discharge is given by Environment Canterbury, as I stated earlier.

Environment Canterbury will now consider in detail every single item that was considered by Christchurch City Council. Anybody can lodge an objection to the application. If you feel strongly about this you should become involved.

This is a very important civic exercise and we must get it right. Future generations will not speak about who was involved in making the decision if we get it wrong - they will just blame our generation.

All of the assumptions made by this Council must be looked at carefully. Is the proposed design of the treatment area cor rect? The scheme as proposed would provide more public open space and wetlands around the Estuary, but have we got this right? Is the UV treatment proposed technically correct?

One of the is sues that became obvious during the City Council considerations was that we have a lot of work to do to clean up our Estuary. The wastewater outfall is but one of them.

We will have to work hard over the next few decades to clean up the Heathcote and Avon Rivers.

We thought that the wastewater outfall would clean up 80% of the sea lettuce in the Estuary. Not so said the scientists. Maybe 20% they informed us. The rest is control led by storms, water temperatures and sediments stir red up by the waters in the Estuary. This exercise has put another is sue on the map for us to act on.

My final comment is that I am delighted that people have shown such an interest in this topic. If the Christchurch City Council has got this wrong then it will be exposed at the Environment Canterbury hearings and we will have to go back to the drawing board.

If more improvements are needed then they will be added. In our healthy civic society, the debate will only improve our City and ad d to the wonderful place it is.

. Gar ry Mo ore holds a chat session with citizens each Friday in Cathedral Square at no on. His email is: garry.moore@ccc.govt.nz