Waipawa & Waipukurau Sludge and Dry Solids Removal

Hydracare have recommenced onsite at Waipukurau in preparation for the commencement of the desludging. This includes a complete replacement of the geobag storage area liner and addition of drainage aggregate, pipework welding and removal of the BAS curtains from the main pond. 

December

Central Hawke’s Bay District Council is beginning a project to remove sludge for the main WWTP pond in Waipukurau. Currently, the pond is approximately 40% sludge. The removal of this sludge will allow the pond and tertiary treatment systems to perform to their fullest capacity, improving the quality of the discharge.

November

Removal of sludge is continuing at pace - approximately 50% of the sludge has been now removed from the Waipawa WWTP main pond (about 1000 tonne). Hydracare have also removed the last small section of floating wetland.

October

Waipawa - Desludging has commenced with good initial progress, approx. 13% of the pond has been completed in just under two weeks. When passing the plant you will now see the first four geobags being filled.

August

The dried solids removal at Waipukurau will be completed early this week, the liner repair company will be onsite later this week to inspect and provide CHBDC with a recommendation for any repairs that are necessary. Hydracare’s team will be back at the Waipawa WWTP preparing for arrival of the dredge that will desludge the pond and fill new geobags in the recently repaired storage area.

July 

Last week Hydracare removed the last of the existing biosolids from the Geobag area at the Waipawa WWTP, revealing a large empty pond like area - see the video below to see the progress. This week the liner will be being completely replaced with a new layer of HDPE material over the top of the existing liner to make sure this will be durable and last well into the future. 

VID-20210701-114938-1.mp4

June

Last week saw Hydracare establish onsite at the Waipawa WWTP and start preparing for the removal of the old biosolids from the Geobag storage area, removal and transportation to the Landfill is planned to start this week. In order to move the material around while in the lined storage area they use this cool little tracked transporter called a Marooka, this spreads the weight over a greater area and protects against damaging the liner material. 

May

Last week Council reached the end of the tender process and awarded a contract for solids removal at Waipawa and Waipukurau WWTPs and desludging of the Waipawa WWTP pond to Hydracare.

This will involve the removal of the old dried sludge (biosolids) from the geobag bunded areas at both sites, repair of the liners in preparation for pond desludging and then the desludging operation at Waipawa. This work is needed to increase the pond capacity (currently reduced to approx 59% of full capacity due to sludge build up), which in turn will improve the treatment ability of the plan