A small rural community south of Oamaru which invested about $50,000 upgrading its water scheme to new drinking-water standards is now having to boil its water because of contamination.
But the Auckland company which supplied the scheme says floods in May-June dramatically changed the source of supply to the plant.
The privately-owned Reidston Water Supply Inc provides drinking and stock water to its 28 shareholders and hoped the new plant, supplied by Purewater Corporation NZ Ltd, meant they would not have to boil drinking water.
However, for the past six months a "boil water" notice has been permanently in place, with E. coli levels up to 22 times the limit.
Purewater's managing director, Bruce McCormick, said yesterday rectifying that was not his company's responsibility, because the water from a bore had changed.
However, he still hoped the situation could be resolved.
The supply committee relied on Ministry of Health advice, through Public Health South, whether the plant would meet new drinking standards, required before it received a $38,000 grant from the Government towards the $50,000 cost.
"We are stuck in the middle. We are all lay people here, so the ministry's advice was vital, not only to make sure the plant would work, but to even get a grant," Reidston committee secretary Tania MacDonald said.
The committee has no reports of illness from the water, but put that down to moving quickly on a "boil water" notice when E. coli levels were exceeded.
It has the support of new Labour Party candidate for Waitaki Barry Monks, after raising the issue with Labour's water spokesman Brendon Burns.
Mr Monks said yesterday residents deserved to have the scheme fixed urgently.
"Residents thought they were getting an affordable, environmentally-friendly system that would adequately meet new drinking water standards."
A solution had to be found between the ministry, company and community, without the community facing a court battle to resolve the issue, he said.
Mrs MacDonald said the community looked at a number of alternatives, but chose the Deferum plant because it was environmentally friendly.
It "ran itself" - vital to a committee of volunteers.
Water is sourced from a shallow bore near the Kakanui River before it enters the treatment plant.
Mrs MacDonald found it "incredible" the company was still blaming flooding almost six months later.
The committee had been told it would cost another $70,000 to rectify and ensure water met the standards.
Mr McCormick said the plant was based on analyses and samples from the bore and to meet the committee's requirements to reduce iron, manganese and E. coli in the water.
Floodwater entered the bore in May-June.
The company then spent money analysing what had happened, on experts and proving the link between the flood and the resultant water quality.
"It [the bore source] is vastly different from what was originally specified," he said.
It also prepared a list of what needed to be done to resolve the new situation.
That included sanitising the treatment plant, which could not be done until the rest of the scheme, including the bore, pipes and consumers' tanks had been cleaned - otherwise the same thing would happen again.
The company's view was that it had no moral, ethical or legal responsibility to pay for what was caused by floods, Mr McCormick said.
The ministry understood the issue was under discussion between the water committee and company which supplied the plant and had no comment.
