A public meeting was held at the Glenavy Hall on Thursday night where the Waimate District Council laid out a plan to combat the high levels of nitrates in the water supply.
The Lower Waihao Rural Water Scheme was first flagged as undrinkable due to high nitrate levels in 2022.
Since then its promised solution has lagged and Waimate District Council was again forced to issue a drinking water warning earlier this month when nitrate levels rose sharply.
The supply has since been deemed safe to drink again.
Waimate District Mayor Craig Rowley, chief executive Stuart Duncan, Lower Waihao Ward councillor Lisa Small and asset group manager Dan Mitchell fronted a group of 30 residents on Thursday.
They were told the Waimate District’s plan of 2023 to build a denitrification plant at the existing water treatment plant has now changed.
Mr Mitchell said a new water intake for the supply at a different spot on the Waitaki River, near Bell’s Pond, was now proposed as the solution.
The council was already in "conversations" with the landowners who were "very open" to the idea, he said.
Monitoring of the proposed new intake to see if the water would be suitable for human consumption began this week.
The council now had "a goal" to lodge the relevant resource consent application by February 28, Mr Mitchell said.
The new option was proposed in light of prohibitive operational costs of the previously mooted denitrification plant.
Mr Mitchell did not specify what the prohibitive costs were, but said they were a big issue.
At the same time, dealing with the nitrate discharge would have been a "consenting nightmare" if it went ahead, he said.
Mr Duncan described the proposed new solution as a "much better option".
"It’s gone from possible, to probable, to most likely," he said.
"The good thing about this is, operationally, it’s very inexpensive.
"It’s the best outcome we could hope for."
He also assured Glenavy residents they would not be solely paying for it.
"We’re not going to bring that cost back to bear on you as the consumer because this is not your doing.
"We will spread it across the district."
Environment Canterbury (Ecan) had offered to send a representative to the meeting but Mr Duncan said they had declined due to the short notice of the meeting.
In their annual groundwater well survey Ecan found nitrate levels above the drinking water limit in 35 of 349 wells across the region.
Ecan said it did not know if all 349 water supplies were used for human consumption.
In a statement, Ecan said as far as it knew, apart from Lower Waihao, no other Canterbury community water supplies had been forced to shut due to high nitrate levels.
The Waimate council is planning another meeting at Glenavy in February to present a more concrete plan.
