This pipeline provides drinking water to Featherston and is leaking on the section that crosses the Tauherenikau River.
Featherston’s water network is supplied by a transmission pipe from the Waiohine water treatment plant. Where the pipeline crosses the Tauherenikau River, the section of pipe that is exposed is approximately 23m long. Of the exposed section, around 15m of pipe is concrete encased and the remaining 8m is made up of steel pipe. A break in the coupler on the exposed section was identified on 3rd December 2021. The leak only became visible when the river level was low. The area of the pipe around the leak suggests this may have been leaking undetected for some time and not visible due to high river levels.
A contingency plan for this scenario has been refined and a repair plan had to be created. The fix identified is in two phases: the first is to stabilise the existing pipe to ensure sustainable water supply in the short term, with the second phase involving the replacement of the pipe with a fully sustainable system that will last many years.
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