Quick chicken and pistachio gnocchi recipe
When you need dinner in a hurry because life's packed with work, school, and kids, then grab a couple of pans and get this easy dish ready in less than 30 minutes.
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Scoop
9 minutes ago
- Scoop
‘Distressing': Featherston Wastewater Plan Faces Push Back
A long and fraught journey to upgrade Featherston's wastewater treatment plant has reached a significant milestone, with a 10-year consent application now resting in the hands of commissioners. But some Featherston residents remained concerned that 97% of the town's treated wastewater would continue to be discharged into waterways, should the consent be approved. A three-day hearing totalling about 20 hours was adjourned on Wednesday, with further discussions over consent conditions still to take place between South Wairarapa District Council and the consenting authority Greater Wellington Regional Council. Currently, 100% of Featherston's treated wastewater was discharged to Donald's Creek which feeds into Lake Wairarapa. This was seen as 'culturally atrocious' by iwi and continued discharge to waterways was inconsistent with the aims of the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management. The district council's proposal was to upgrade inlet screens at the treatment plant, improve equipment in the oxidation pond, introduce a new clarification system such as a Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) to reduce sediment and contaminants in the wastewater, and a construct a wetland and revegetated area, improving the quality of discharged treated wastewater. The consent would also allow time to trial and implement a discharge to land process using trickle irrigation on up to seven hectares of council-owned land at Hodder Farm. This trial would inform a longer-term consent shifting towards more discharge to land. Commissioners heard from experts representing each council and also submissions from the public, including former South Wairarapa deputy mayor Garrick Emms and Marguerite Tait-Jamieson. The couple said they were 'angry' that $17 million would be spent on wastewater treatment upgrades that would shift just 3% of treated wastewater to land-based disposal by 2032. Emms, and other submitters said the council-owned Hodder Farm, where the trials would be done, had a high groundwater table, was prone to flooding, was unsuitable for long-term discharge of treated wastewater, and potentially unconsentable for wastewater discharge in the future. Documents supporting the consent application said during the trial, treated wastewater would only be discharged to land when the soil was dry enough to do so, which was only for 30% of the year. Emms said commissioners should 'reject the whole thing' and that South Wairarapa District Council should 'go and look for some other land' where higher volumes of treated wastewater could be discharged to instead of land 'in the middle of a floodplain'. 'It's not brain surgery to get out of this and go looking for somewhere better,' Emms said. 'Anything to get wastewater out of Donald's Creek has to be good, but 3% for $17m?' Submitters were also concerned that inflow and infiltration issues would not be addressed within the scope of the consent. Commissioners heard that major wastewater inflow and infiltration issues persisted in Featherston which resulted in an average daily wastewater flow of more than 1500 litres per person per day. Expert witness Oliver Hunt said normal per capita wastewater flows would be 'in the order of 200-250 litres per person per day'. Tait-Jamieson said even if inflow and infiltration issues were fixed, the proposed wastewater solution was 'still not satisfactory' as waterways were still being discharged to. Submitter Claire Bleakley said the amount of treated wastewater that would continue to be discharged to waterways was 'distressing' and would only continue to degrade the 'dying' Lake Wairarapa. She described the 10-year consent proposal as 'a plaster trying to mitigate the worst of the effects'. Earlier in the hearing, South Wairarapa District Council's expert witnesses described the wastewater treatment upgrade proposal as a middle ground the community could afford which would improve environmental impacts while collecting information that would inform the development of a longer-term solution. When wrapping up the hearing on Wednesday, commissioner Mark Ashby said he and his fellow commissioners Logan Brown and Rawiri Faulkner would 'try to do their best by the environment and the community' in making their decision. The Featherston Wastewater Treatment Plant has been operating under a historic resource consent since 2012, when the existing consent expired. In 2017, the community pushed back on a previous consent application to progressively move to discharging the town's UV-treated wastewater to land rather than waterways.
NZ Herald
39 minutes ago
- NZ Herald
Huntly brown water problem: Specialised unit arrives for water flushing
The unit, owned by a private company called Detection Services, is New Zealand's only one and arrived in the country in October last year. This week, the council said it had now been able to use the unit to flush and remove mineral deposits from the water pipes. The council's waters manager Keith Martin said the water for Huntly residents was taken from the Waikato River and the intake was 'below the Mangawara stream in Taupiri'. This stream had high levels of manganese, which was a naturally occurring mineral. Martin said dissolved minerals built up in the pipes, and eventually dropped and were swept by the water flow, causing the water discolouration. 'Even though the water is still safe to drink, we know that the water colour is off-putting for people.' This was why the arrival of the unit was great news. A no-des unit is used to flush water pipes. Photo / Waikato District Council 'The unit connects hydrant-to-hydrant, uses reverse flow to scrub the sediment build-up off the pipes and then filters it out. 'The process filters out debris with minimal water loss and will target key areas in Huntly to improve water quality across the network,' Martin said. However, some residents are concerned whether the unit will fix the issue. Huntly resident Joanne Kelly, said for her, the issue had yet to improve with brown water still running through her tap this week. Huntly resident Joanne Kelly is concerned about the brown tap water issue in town. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer 'There's just no trust there because my water is still brown, and nothing has changed.' Huntly-born resident Awhina, who did not want to give her last name, told the Herald she was the fifth generation of her family to live in the district. In the last decade, she started noticing brown water that looked like 'mushroom soup without the cream' in her taps and a smell she described as similar to chlorine. Due to this, she uses bottled and filtered water to drink, but continued to see brown water when running a bath, and she noticed the unusual smell 'almost every day'. When asked how she felt about the flushing having started this week, Awhina said she was unsure. The brown water in Huntly has been a reoccurring issue since 2015. Photos / Aimee Sayers, Jennifer Carr, Nick Greene 'It'd be interesting to see what [the unit] actually does, I think it's more than just minerals. 'But if it does work, that'll be awesome.' Martin said in addition to the flushing, the council had been undertaking 'a programme of work' to improve the water supply in Huntly, including upgrading water lines and flushing pipes regularly. This had resulted in fewer brown water incidents, the council said. While the no-des unit is in use, Huntly's water supply wouldn't be affected, the council said but there may be traffic disruptions. Signs and traffic management were in place. Work was planned to be completed by the end of the week. The specialised unit has been used by a number of councils around New Zealand and Australia. Waikato District Council plans to upgrade the water treatment plant in the future to deal better with manganese deposits. Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakatāne.
NZ Herald
39 minutes ago
- NZ Herald
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