A wastewater pump station in Nelson has been demolished after a car crashed into it.
Emergency services responded to the crash at around 7.20 pm on Tuesday, after the vehicle crashed into the pump station on the corner of Weka and Sovereign Streets in the Wood.
One person was transported to Nelson Hospital in a moderate condition.
Mayor Nick Smith says the facility had been damaged beyond repair and that it was too early to know what the cost of replacement would be.
The pump station serves more than 200 properties across the Wood, Maitai, and Brook areas of the city.
Nelson City Council confirmed that no wastewater discharge was found at the site.
Due to suspected damage, the pumps were manually turned off once a sucker truck had been deployed to transport wastewater to the nearby Neale Park pump station.
The pump station building and control panels were unsalvageable and have since been demolished.
But the underground pumps were not damaged, and the station is now operating as normal and the sucker truck stood down.
A temporary weatherproof shelter was built around the pump station, and a mobile control centre replaced the control panels while repairs were conducted.
The initial response costs are estimated at $15–20,000 for the sucker truck, demolition and disposal of debris, and establishing the temporary equipment.
“The full cost will not be known until the extent of the damage has been assessed by council’s utilities team and structural engineers,” says manager delivery operations Eddie Powick.
Brand-new wastewater treatment plants can cost several million dollars, but because the underground pumps were not damaged, the incident's potential cost and disruption have been significantly reduced.
Nick did not want to speculate on how long it would take to develop a plan for the pump station’s replacement, or how it would be funded.
He hoped that insurance would cover some of the cost, but said there was “no question” that the council would be left with some of the bill.
“We want to get it fixed and replaced, but at the same time minimise the cost to the ratepayer.”
“Council is currently working closely with its insurance team to determine what costs may be recoverable,” Eddie added.
