Encouraging progress on trickling filter removal

Work to remove material from the fire-damaged trickling filters at the Christchurch Wastewater Treatment Plant began in earnest this week, and our contractor, Southern Demolition and Salvage, has reported that they're making encouraging progress. 

Sheet-piling of the ramp to the second trickling filter also began on Wednesday, so that excavation work on the second structure as soon as possible.

We've also published some helpful information about our air quality testing, on our website, under the "About our air-quality testing" dropdown. You can read about the gases that make up the odour, the source, health impacts and the next steps by clicking the link below.

Drone shot from today

This shot that our photographer took today shows the smaller excavator now operating inside the first trickling filter, after it was lifted in by crane yesterday afternoon. This is a great illustration of the huge, complex task that the contractors are undertaking to remove the fire-damaged material.

More than half of households receive support

As of last night, our community providers have distributed $372,600 to the residents most affected by the ongoing stench from the wastewater treatment plant in the first four days since the Community Support Package opened.

Some 1863 households have received the $200 grant in the form of bill payments, direct bank transfers and Prezzy cards, which is about 55% of the eligible population.

We’ll provide a further update on how the numbers are tracking early next week.

You can find contact information for the four community providers here, under the Available Support dropdown.

Latest from the Newsline blog

This photo we took on-site yesterday afternoon shows the size and design of a complete “bale” of filter material (centre). Each of these plastic filter bales is over 1m long, and 50cm deep and wide.

The small black mound on the left-hand side shows the volume of one of these filter bales once it’s been put through the chipper and is ready to be compacted and trucked to Kate Valley Landfill.

We're providing regular updates on our Newsline blog multiple times a day, including  information and images of the on-site progress, daily wind forecasts, air quality testing results, updates on the Community Support Package and other information as it comes to hand.

The week ahead...

Next week we plan to publish a video that we're developing to show how we've had to modify the Christchurch Wastewater Treatment Plant since the fire, and how these changes are going to make a difference to the ongoing smells over the coming weeks.

We'll continue to update the Newsline blog with information and news, both from on-site and as the Community Support Package continues to be rolled out to residents most-affected by the stench.

We've also published also publish the latest air quality findings on our website under the "Published testing results" section. 

Stay updated

We want everyone to be able to stay updated on our response and recovery from the treatment plant fire, and have created ccc.govt.nz/wastewaterfire so that we can regularly share new information with you.

We also post regular updates to our blog on Newsline.

If you know of anyone who would like to receive this e-newsletter they can subscribe online. 

If you have any questions, or would like further information on the project, please call us on 03 941 8999 or 0800 800 169 or email wastewater@ccc.govt.nz  

Thanks in advance for your patience and understanding as we continue to work on minimising the unpleasant smells after the fire. We’ll be in touch again soon.