Christchurch stormwater
1. What is it?
Answer: Christchurch stormwater is simply rain water. However, it can cause flooding across the city. When rain is falling, the water falls onto the ground, and either soaks into the ground, or drains into open pipes and drains located around the city. On wet days, you will be able to see water going down grains in gutters. After heavy or torrential rain falls, however, riverbanks can burst and flood some areas of the city.
2. Where does it go?
Answer: To prevent flooding of stormwater, the Christchurch Environmental and City Council have established stormwater drains, open pipes, and stations across the city. In Christchurch, we have a large water treatment plant, in the estuary, that is fortunately, more advanced than other cities. On the Port Hills, there are approximately 86km of waterways. An example of a Christchurch stormwater drain are tidal barriers located on the rivers such as the Heathcote River. Another example are gutter drains. These are common in all areas of the city.
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| A gutter drain. These are found all over Christchurch. |
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| This is a tidal barrier in place, located in Christchurch. |
3. What can contaminate it?
Answer: Stormwater can be contaminated in a number of ways. Contaminated means, if something
that's not supposed to be in water, gets in, or if the water is poisoned, or tampered with. For example, baby formula was contaminated with a 10-80 drug several years ago. This was a rare case for New Zealand. Deliberate water contamination is rare, but accidental water contamination is not.
Stormwater contamination can happen if pollutant rubbish or bacteria, non-water liquids, mud or dirt, and food, get into stormwater drains. They can potentially flow into the water supply untreated. The outcome can be consequential. Untreated, polluted stormwater can harm animal and wildlife, and people's health. An example of a contaminated river is Lake Ellesmere. It is unswimmable because of poor actions and polluted water contaminating it. It is a risk to human, animal, and marine life health. The regional and city councils have organised plans to make Lake Ellesmere clean again.
Christchurch wastewater
1. What is it?
Answer: Wastewater is the water used to flush rural and public toilets, and is found in kitchens,
laundries, and bathrooms, all over Christchurch. There is another form of wastewater, called municipal wastewater, or sewage. This sewage typically comes from domestic toilets, sinks and drains, which is often full of feces and urine.
2. Where does it go?
From domestic households or drains, the sewage goes through one of the almost 300 pump stations around Christchurch, to wastewater treatment plants. From there, the sewage water is treated, and comes out as purified water. Over 170 million litres of sewage water goes through 1734km worth of treatment plants everyday in Christchurch.
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| This is sewage/waste water treatment plant located in Christchurch. |
3. What can contaminate it?
Although wastewater is not so clean itself, it can be contaminated by items such as drugs, skin lotion, and perfumes. This is typically done deliberately. The pollutants can potentially be flushed down a toilet, or washed down a sink drain. From there, the polluted sewage water will go through a pump station, through to the treatment plant, and may not be treated properly. The effect of drug-polluted sweage water is dangerous, for animal, marine, and human health. Earlier this year, a North Island town's water supply was spiked with a nasty bacteria, and the town was hit with a gastro bug virus. The origin of the water pollution was unknown, and was unlikely to have been prevented.
