The water conservation message in Mid Canterbury hasn’t washed away despite wet weather staving off potential water restrictions.
Ashburton’s water consumption was teetering on the verge of facing restrictions in December, breaching the consented amount of water taken in a 24-hour period on the town supply.
Water consumption had remained high following the Ashburton District Council messaging to conserve or face restrictions, but a wet start to the new year has seen levels return to normal, council infrastructure and open spaces group manager Neil McCann said.
“The cooler and wet weather has significantly reduced the daily consumption, to lower than 20,000m3 per day.”
Water consumption on the Ashburton urban supply, including Tinwald and Lake Hood, peaked around 25,000 cubic metres per day and even went over in a breach of the water abstraction consents.
ECan was aware that water use for the Ashburton urban area had exceeded the consented 25,000 cumecs for several days in December.
Compliance manager Jennifer Rochford said the council had advised residents to conserve water and continued to “monitor water use volume and follow our standard compliance processes”.
All water consent holders who take water at a rate of 10 litres per second or more must measure and record how much water is taken every 15 minutes, and provide ECan daily data.
“The repercussions for breaching a consent depend on the type, extent, and impact of the activity. Compliance actions could range from education or a written warning, all the way to a legal prosecution.”
There has been around 60mm of rain across Mid Canterbury so far in January, with the average for the whole month being around 50mm, which has resulted in water consumption dropping.
McCann said that despite the rain, a run of hot days “could put us back to where we were in early December”.
“Water conservation should be practised regardless.
“We want to remind people when watering their gardens during the hot periods, to do so early in the morning or later in the evening, and not in the middle of the day or during peak water consumption hours from 5pm-8pm.”
The rain also eased concerns about restrictions in Mt Somers, which has a river intake.
“Mt Somers intake levels recovered nicely because of the cooler weather and some rain.”
The new $4.6m treatment plant that opened is working well, McCann said.
There will also be an update on the water supply upgrades at the next Three Waters Committee meeting in February.
One of the key projects is installing UV filtration systems in treatment plants across the district.
“Our priority is to complete eight sites progressively by the end of this year.”
By Jonathan Leask
