It was a red letter day for the people of Methven today, when their new $10m water treatment plant was officially opened by Ashburton District Mayor Neil Brown.

The plant uses membrane technology which provides ultra-filtration to raw water from the north branch of the Ashburton River, before it is treated and distributed to properties on the Methven and Springfield schemes.

Mayor Brown said the new plant would end boil water notices for Methven, something that the whole town would benefit from.
Methven Community Board chairman Kelvin Holmes sand Methven had long endured boil water notices after big rain events, and he thanked Council and its contractors for the new plant.

“I think it is a very, very good project and on behalf of the Methven community I thank you and hope a lot of residents will come tomorrow and look at the plant.”

The plant will be open from 9am-12pm on Saturday 7 October for the community to see how it ticks.

Mr Holmes said Methven would not have been able to afford the plant had it not been part of the district’s urban drinking water group, which rates all urban properties the same and spreads the cost of essential infrastructure.

“Thank you Council for keeping this project to the front of mind and having a funding mechanism to make it work and pay for it … that benefits a small town like Methven.”

Invited guests included councillors and members of the Methven Community Board, as well as contractors that worked on the project – Masons Engineering, ACL, McIntosh Commercial Construction, Kinetic Electrical and Reliant Solutions. The plant was blessed by Te Runanga o Arowhenua Upoko Te Wera King.

The new plant includes a large treatment room with three skids of membranes that automatically clean themselves, and two new storage reservoirs that will help manage peak demand.

Membrane filtration is used in 50 other water treatment plants in New Zealand and has been used for the past 30 years.

A similar, but smaller, plant is being built for the Mt Somers water supply.