Submissions on Ocean Outfall heard

The City Council heard verbal submissions last month on what water quality and beach standards people expect when the city’s wastewater is piped out to sea.

The verbal submissions followed a public consultation process on water quality and beach standards, which closed on 31 March. More than 250 written submissions on water quality and beach standards were received.

City Council senior projects engineer John Moore says the next step is for the City Council to make a decision about which options to pursue when building the Ocean Outfall, such as how far the pipeline will go out to sea and whether to build a UV plant.

That decision is expected to be made in August. Following that, the City Council needs to lodge a resource consent application with Environment Canterbury for the outfall.

This is expected to be made in December. The Ocean Outfall is expected to be completed around 2009, depending on how long the planning and consents process takes.

• For more information see www.ccc.govt.nz/OceanOutfall