Aspects of Wellington’s new $500 million sludge treatment facility have been declared at critical risk on multiple fronts including the danger of opening without the sludge to feed it.
Papers to a Wellington City Council meeting this week show that the joint venture behind the plant is up to four months behind schedule, non-accredited steel used in base plate construction needs further testing and extra personnel are being brought in to “streamline” a handover.
On top of that, the February 4 flooding of the neighbouring sewage Moa Point plant, needed to be fixed by June 30 and “any delays to this will impact on commissioning and handover of the plant to the operator”, council papers say.
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Moa Point, built in the 1990s, turns wastewater into sludge, which is currently buried at the tip but that plant was inundated with rain and wastewater on February 4 resulting in major damage and resulting in 70 million litres of untreated wastewater being discharged daily off the south coast.
No timeframe has yet been given for repairs.
The new sludge plant, which has already blown out from $200m to about $500m, was meant to take that sludge and turn it into pellets that can be used on gardens.
The sludge plant is not due to open until 2027 but council papers show, “the commissioning programme relies on having sludge available from Moa Point by the end of June”.
Wellington mayor Andrew Little said a remediation plan for the sewage plant was arriving soon and that would give a timetable to get it operating again but he was not expecting it would be “anywhere near ready” by June.
“I expect that is still months away, and that will have implications for the sludge minimisation plant,” he said.
It was previously reported that some steel used in the base plates of the main process station did not meet design requirements. An independent expert was brought in to do modelling, with a report from the process recommending additional testing of samples. Now a certified testing lab was being found.
The plant is being built by a joint venture of McConnell Dowell Constructors and HEB Construction, which had improved on meeting milestones but remained three to four months behind the original programme, papers say.
“The level of engagement and integration of key stakeholders, Wellington Water and Veolia, is not as well progressed as expected,” they say.
“The team is engaging in productive meetings with [Wellington Water] to improve the handover process and flow of approval documentation.”
There are a few glimmers of good news in the report with previously signalled issues about getting sufficient electricity to the site now sorted.
All major mechanical equipment was now installed and an odour control unit was fully commissioned, tested and handed over to Wellington Water and operator Veolia for operation and maintenance.
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