#1089 ... Water Storage

Wellington's water storage lakes at Te Marua ... east of Wellington at the upper end of the Hutt Valley.

BRIEF HISTORY
work started in October 1980 on the two lakes, to hold 3,220 million litres – equivalent to about three weeks’ average supply. The consulting engineers were Tonkin & Taylor Ltd, for whom contractors Green & McCahill worked. The project was hit by ballooning inflation in the 1980s, when costs estimated in 1974, for instance, had to be multiplied by 361 percent.229 Water from Lake 2 flowed first to consumers in January 1986. However, leakiness seemed to dominate public perception of the lakes and led to five years of remedial work. The contractor was paid for this considerable extra work by the engineers’ insurers, but only on the steps of the High Court.230 The lakes were named after Stuart Macaskill in 2002, honouring the long-term water board member and regional council chairman

Before the lakes were completed, work began on a pumping station at Te Marua. This housed 10 pumps, to move water from lake to treatment plant or between the lakes, or boost the gravity flow of treated water from Te Marua to Karori. It was commissioned in December 1985. The Te Marua water storage and treatment project was completed in 1987 with commissioning of the treatment plant