Possums blamed for Carterton water woes | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

Carterton's main water supply has had unusually high levels of bacteria, but it's still OK to drink.

The Kaipatangata Stream has shown high levels of bacteria since December last year and the lack of possum eradication by Greater Wellington Regional Council was cited as a possible cause at this month's operations committee meeting of Carterton District Council.

"Are the regional council keeping up their possum control in that area?", councillor David Lowes asked.

Operations manager Garry Baker said that there had been no possum eradication carried out by the regional council for two years, and Mr Lowe said that that "could well be the problem couldn't it"?

Water treatment and supply contractor Stu Clark, of New Zealand Environment Technologies, also said that "could well be the problem", and Mr Lowes questioned the regional council's ability to carry out their role.

"Is Greater Wellington up to the mark, whether it be possum control or whether it be resource consents?" he asked.

Mr Clark said that it could be sensible to make contact with the regional council to see where staff members are at with possum control.

After the meeting, acting chief executive Milan Hautler said there was no cause for concern to people's health, despite the elevated counts.

"It appears that the count was high but it hasn't made any difference to our drinking standards," he said. "We are still compliant with the grading."

Mr Clark said aerial photographs would be used as an initial step in identifying areas for a flyover that will kick off a sanitary survey recommended by the drinking water assessor at Carterton's water supply grading discussions.

"It's teasing out all the options and looking at any of the sources of contaminants and how they can be controlled," Mr Clark said.

He said the council is applying for a Ministry of Health subsidy to install a UV treatment system, which will deal with cysts more effectively than the chlorine and filtration techniques currently in place.